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Aurangabad, June 29:Claiming it as an attempt to provide relief to the tourism sector, the union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a couple of announcements on Monday. The announcements are a talk of the tourism circle in the region and evoked mixed responses from the tourism associates. They welcomed the decisions with a heavy heart but underlined the need for urgent revision in them.While addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Monday, Sitaraman said that a total of 10.93 million foreign tourists had visited India in 2019 and spent a sum of 30.098 billion dollars on leisure and business. The average stay of each foreign tourist is 21 days and their average expenditure is Rs 2,400 (34 dollars) daily. To enhance the arrivals of foreign tourists, the Government of India (GoI) will be issuing free of charge 5 lakh visas. Any foreign tourist can avail of the benefit only once. The scheme will be applicable till March 31, 2022, or till 5 lakh visas are issued. The scheme will start when borders reopen and visas start being issued once again. This is likely to cost the government around Rs 100 crore.The finance minister also informed about granting capital and personal loans to the tourism sector in the credit guarantee scheme for Covid-hit sectors. The scheme will cover 10,700 regional-level tourist guides and 904 travel and tourism stakeholders (both government-approved). The loans will be provided with a 100% guarantee for loans up to Rs 10 lakh for stakeholders, and Rs 1 lakh for individual tourist guides.Help attract tourists to visit world heritage sitesIndia Tourism (Aurangabad) manager, R J Ram welcomed the decision. He said, " The decision will help boost the arrival of foreign tourists in India. It will also prompt tourists to visit a plethora of heritage sites and monuments including world heritage sites - Ajanta Caves and Ellora Caves, Daulatabad Fort, and Bibi ka Maqbara of our region. There are more than 50 registered tourists guides in our office. Their license permits them to attend tourists and explain monuments and heritage places in the five states."We do not wish to be in debt trapsThe Aurangabad Tourism Development Forum (ATDF) president Jaswant Singh said, " The decision of issuing free of cost 5 lakh visas is welcoming, but its validity could have been for 2-3 years or allow multiple entries. It is because the foreign tourist may not visit this year, but if the scheme is available, he may plan to visit next year. It should not have been only for once but would have been for multiple entries. The finance minister had announced granting loans. We would be pushed into a debt trap if the loans are not issued interest-free. How can we (stakeholders) repay the loans, when there is no business at all for the past 18 months. The guides are also facing a financial crisis and are not in a position to repay it. The decision is a hot topic of discussion in the tourism circle since last evening."Modification in the scheme is need of the hourAccording to the Director - Department of Tourism Administration (BAMU) Dr. Rajesh Ragde, " The issuance of free of cost visas is indeed a good decision to boost the tourists' arrival in future. However, granting financial help under a credit guarantee scheme to the government-approved tourism stakeholders and tourist guides is also good, but few changes are need of the hour. As per the latest changes, the nomenclature of tourist 'guides' has been changed to tourism 'facilitator' and the nature of work and responsibility have also changed. The licenses of the guides have not been renewed, as a result, the Guide Associations have gone to the High Courts against this decision and are waiting for the final decision. In this scenario, if any guide applies for a loan, it is liable to be rejected because of the issue of the license renewal and nomenclature. Besides, many small and medium stakeholders (which are in the business for years, but are not approved) will also face the same issue of approval. Hence, there is an urgent need for making the necessary modifications in the scheme so that all approved tourist guides and stakeholders will be eligible for availing of the loan benefits.

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