New Delhi, April 12 (IANS) With merely 18 months left for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, India needs to allow 100 percent foreign investment in tourism infrastructure projects to boost tourism, says an industry lobby.
According to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), 100 percent foreign investment in developing tourism infrastructure in India will give a major boost to this sector.

Delhi alone needs 30,000 rooms to cope up for the 2010 Games.

FICCI said the need of the hour was to “invest in the tourism infrastructure, identify hotel sites to be given on long-term leasehold basis, and develop guidelines to ease land prices so that more hotel rooms are available in India, especially in the budget category”.

There is also a need to “refurbish the Indian tourism product and market India as a wholesome, safe and secure destination”, the industry group proposed in its 13-point agenda that it said could lure 10 million tourists in 2010.

FICCI’s tourism agenda focuses on tourist security, confidence-building measures, training of personnel, upgrading of infrastructure, rationalisation of taxes and easy availability of visa.

There is also a need to improve civic amenities through the public-private partnership model and speed up modernisation and upgrade of airport infrastructure, FICCI said.