Following Hon'ble PM Narendra Modi's visit to Nepal for the Saarc
summit, the government is mulling a proposal to provide leave travel concession
(LTC) for government employees to four countries — Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and
Sri Lanka — to boost tourism in the neighbourhood. The LTC will be modeled on
the schemes for the north-east and J&K which helped increase tourism and
fueled economic improvement in the two regions.
Incidentally, there has been a sharp dip in tourist arrivals from all
four countries in the last few years. While Sri Lanka remains one of India's
top source countries, tourism arrivals declined by 11% in 2013 while arrivals
from Maldives dropped by 10% between 2012 and 2013.
Similarly, the number of tourists from Nepal came down by 9% while
Bhutan, which has a small share of tourists (15,016), saw a drop of 1% in the
same period.
Sources in the tourism ministry said, "Introducing LTC for 20 lakh
government employees could encourage greater people to people exchange among
the Saarc countries. But there will have to be some reciprocal arrangement. We
are working on that." Sources said India was in touch with the countries
to consider the proposal's viability.
At the Saarc summit, Modi had highlighted the need for better
connectivity in the region. In his speech, he had said, "It is still
harder to travel within our region than to Bangkok or Singapore; and, more
expensive to speak to each other."
There are a large number of Buddhists in the region and India hopes to
capitalize on that. Besides Lumbini in Nepal, other significant spots for
Buddhists are in India including Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kapilvastu. Modi also
flagged off a Kathmandu-Delhi bus but plans for greater rail and road
connectivity were stonewalled after Pakistan blocked two agreements in Nepal
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