From amusement parks to museums, TN initiates 10 investment plans to boost tourism

CHENNAI: For the first time, the Tamil Nadu government has initiated more than 10 new investment plans to develop tourism projects in the State and provide an array of incentives for investors, who can help generate more jobs in the sector. Additionally, the State tourism has also planned to expand its digital marketing by involving IT experts.

Type of tourism projects include, amusement park and theme park, heritage hotel, experiential resort, eco-hut (camp and tented accommodation), ropeway, wellness resort, oceanarium and aquarium, plantation and farm tourism, museums, cruise tourism, caravan tourism.

A senior official from the Tamil Nadu Tourism Department, under the new State Tourism Policy, said, “Tourism destinations will be selected by a high-level committee comprising of the secretaries of several departments such as Tourism, Culture and Religious Endowments Department, Revenue Department, Finance Department, Environment and Forests Department and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Department (MSME).”

The State government aims to provide incentive packages to support enterprises and projects, which are designed to encourage and facilitate the growth of tourism-related businesses and initiatives in TN.

“For administering incentives, three categories of enterprises and projects have been identified, which will be determined based on the proposed investment in eligible capital assets made within a standard period of 4 years and based on the turnover of the enterprise,” elaborated the official.

Categories of projects

Investment in eligible capital assets up to and including Rs 50 crore, and annual turnover not exceeding Rs 250 crore, is the first category (A-project). The second category, is investment in eligible capital assets of more than Rs 50 crore and upto (including) Rs 200 crore, and finally (B-project), the third category (C-project) should have the investment eligible only in capital assets of more than Rs 200 crore.

The official added: “Investments will have single window clearance, which will be provided to all the proposed schemes. Operational guidelines will be published by MSME department from time to time. There will be applicable for yet-to-be approved incentives, and disbursed under the industrial policy and MSME policy respectively.”

Benefits

“The move from tourism might be good for connecting private partners to lure the tourists in TN. But how long would it take to implement all these initiatives to get financial gain for private players?” said S Kumararaman, who is running a private travel agency in Chennai. “The State government is helping in all aspects to encourage tourism but there are several tourist promoters like me, still suffering from the many initiatives by the State. It would be helpful if the government announced more incentives for the category-3 tour operators, as they do not have much money to invest.”

Concurring with him was Anand K Sharma, a tour operator, who added: “An impetus by the government would help small tour operators like me earn regular income regularly. Tourism authorities must also remove all fake agents who book tickets illegally.”

Digital tourism

The tourism official said that the digitisation effort, involving IT experts in the organisation, will be undertaken to capture and showcase Tamil Nadu’s major tourism assets, with a special focus on its historical and cultural sites.

“This will create a publicly accessible repository of high-resolution photos, three-dimensional models, and virtual tours, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the State’s captivating hotspots,” he added. “Digital signs, way finders, audio-visual guides, virtual reality, and augmented reality, will be integrated to provide visitors with immersive experiences.”

The State will leverage technology to facilitate data-driven planning and monitoring. The TTDC will establish a system to accurately collect and analyse data for informed decision-making. “Overall analytics mechanisms will also monitor the ground-level implementation of policy reforms and other tourism initiatives,” he stated.

INCENTIVE FOR INVESTORS

· Payroll incentive will be available for firms who provide employment to more than 20 people

· Tourism projects will be eligible for incentives in the form of reimbursement of costs towards employers’ contribution to EPF up to Rs 24,000/year per employee

· Up to 5% interest subvention (subsidised interest) on loans of up to Rs 5 crore towards technology upgradation or modernisation scheme

· Ceiling on total interest subvention will be Rs 20 lakh

· New hotel projects in tourism destinations will be eligible for electricity tariff rebate