Major Move to bring in Transparency in Granting Approval for Hotel Projects and Classifying Hotels

Union Tourism Minister Shri K Chiranjeevi today announced a major initiative to bring in transparency in granting approvals for hotel projects and classification status to functioning hotels. The hotel promoters and owners seek voluntary approval from the Ministry of Tourism for their projects and classification from one Star to Five Star Deluxe by submitting applications. These requests are processed for a final decision within 90 days from the receipt of complete applications. At present, the applicants remain unaware of the status of their applications till the final decision is conveyed to them. With the new move, all information relating to such applications indicating the latest status will be put on the website of the Ministry of Tourism www.tourism.gov.in . All applicants will be given a password to access the details posted on the web. The web details will indicate the date of receipt of applications, status regarding project approval, proposed date of the visit of Hotel and Restaurant Classification Committee, final recommendation of the Committee and final status of Classification/Approval. This measure will bring in more transparency, make officials more accountable in working and enable the applicants to access information and check status of their applications sitting at their own places. The endeavour of the Ministry will remain to give a final decision on all applications complete in all respects. The new system will be introduced from 01April,2013.

 Union Tourism Minister, Dr. K. Chiranjeevi welcomes the joint efforts of Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Tourism to simplify the Embarking Card for Indians and Disembarking Cards for foreigners.
The proposed Forms are point specific with the relevant questions and tourist friendly. This will come into effect from 1st July 2013. Through these Identification Cards, statistics of foreign tourist arrivals can be easily generated. There is reduction in the size of cards to the earlier size where it was having huge number of questions.Visa on Arrival Scheme Registers A Growth of 54 Percent During the month of February 2013, a total number of 1,947 Visa on Arrival(VoA) were issued as compared to 1,259 VoAs during the month of February 2012, registering a growth of 54.6%. 

Highlights of VoAs issued during February, 2013 :
The following are the other important highlights of VoAs issued during February, 2013 : • During the period January-February 2013, a total number of 3,637 VoAs were issued as compared to 2,618 VoAs during corresponding period of 2012 registering a positive growth of 38.9%.
• The number of VoAs issued under this scheme during February 2013 for nationals of the eleven countries were Japan (874), New Zealand (286), Indonesia (246), the Philippines (197), Singapore (171), Finland (110), Cambodia (18), Luxembourg (18), Vietnam (17), Myanmar (8) and Laos (2).
• The number of VoAs issued under the Scheme January-February 2013 were Japan (1403), New Zealand (653), Indonesia (427), the Philippines (406), Singapore (357), Finland (277), Cambodia (35), Vietnam (33), Luxembourg (29), Myanmar (14) and Laos (3).
• During the period January-February 2013, the highest number of VoAs were issued at Delhi airport (2123) followed by Mumbai (792), Chennai (513) and Kolkata (209).
As a facilitative measure to attract more foreign tourists to India, the Government launched the “Visa on Arrival” (VoA) Scheme in January 2010 for citizens of five countries, viz. Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore, visiting India for tourism purposes. The Government extended this Scheme to the citizens of six more countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos and Myanmar in January 2011. The following are the important highlights of VoAs issued during February, 2013.