Govt determined to strengthen tourism sector infra: PM

The Prime Minister said Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models are also being followed to increase hotel accommodations in the country. “But, tourism will grow only when we provide infrastructure at global level,” Modi said adding that the government is providing e-visa facility due to which tourism is increasing.

Union Ministers M Venkaiah Naidu, Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Nirmala Sitaraman, Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu were among those present during the inauguration.

The Airports Authority of India has spent Rs 191 crore to build the new Garuda-shaped terminal which can handle code ‘D’ and code ‘C’ types of aircraft with link taxi, apron and associated infrastructure, AAI said in a statement here. The new steel and glass integrated terminal building can handle 500 domestic and 200 international passengers at a time and has a peak-hour handling capacity of 700 passengers built over an area of 16,500 sq m plus 5,500 sq m of basement.

It has 18 check-in-counters, four immigration counters, four baggage conveyors for arrival and one for departure, three baggage claim carousels, two VIP lounges, and parking for 250 cars, an official release had earlier said. 

Earlier, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make a series of “very important” announcements to promote startups in the country in December.

In his Independence Day speech, Modi had announced a new campaign ‘Startup India; Stand up India’ to promote bank financing for startups and offer incentives to boost entrepreneurship and job creation in the country. “... in early to mid-December the Prime Minister is going to make a series of very important announcements on Startup India where we will bring together the work that we are doing and make some important announcements about how we are going to take forward India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Sinha said.

Promising that the announcements are going to be “very exciting”, the minister said the government is committed to promote startups and entrepreneurship.

“We have already done, I think, more in the last 15 months than the previous government did in 10 years,” Sinha said. He was delivering the keynote C K Prahalad Memorial Lecture at the TiECon Delhi 2015. Prahalad was a renowned management guru.

Sinha said the announcements to be made by the Prime Minister would ensure that India as a country with respect to startups and entrepreneurs “is going to be the best in the world”. The government, he said, is working very hard to make it very easy to do business for entrepreneurs and startups, and also to ensure the financing is available.

Meanwhile, Mumbai has been ranked 11th among the best value destinations in the world for an overnight stay at a four-star hotel that includes breakfast, according to a report.

As per TripIndex Breakfast 2015, a TripAdvisor cost comparison study, Mumbai ranks 11th among the best value destinations for an overnight stay with breakfast costing Rs 9,343.92. Accommodation without breakfast will cost Rs 8,932.44 in the city, the report added. The TripIndex Breakfast 2015 destination list comprises of 37 key cities within the top 37 most searched countries by global TripAdvisor users over the past 12 months.

The report has compared the cost of an overnight stay with breakfast versus an overnight stay with breakfast eaten outside the hotel at a local restaurant.

Research was conducted by Ipsos and prices were collected through telephone and online web search. Prices in each market were taken in local currencies between September 7, 2015 and October 1, 2015 and currency conversion rates were taken from xe.com on October 1, 2015.

Buenos Aires (Argentina) is the best value destination in the world for Indians for an overnight stay at a four-star hotel including breakfast at Rs 4,612.63, followed by Moscow (Russia) at Rs 5,671.35, it said. New York City (US) emerged as the most expensive hotel destination in this study with an average of Rs 34,102.66 with breakfast.

When it comes to the cost of a hotel breakfast versus the cost of eating breakfast in a local restaurant, the cheapest hotel breakfast can be found in Istanbul (Turkey) at an average price of Rs 397.12 while the most expensive, at an average price of Rs 1,918.86, is in Zurich (Switzerland).

Warsaw, the capital city of Poland, has the cheapest local restaurant breakfast, at an average of Rs 301.44, while Hong Kong offers the most expensive local restaurant breakfast at an eye-watering average of Rs 2,382.25, it stated. 

For Indians looking to travel closer home, two South East Asian destinations -- Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Manila (Philippines) -- were ranked among the top 10 value destinations at number seven and eight respectively.

“The main aim of the maiden TripIndex for Breakfast study is to help travellers make a wise decision while booking their stay at a hotel,” TripAdvisor India Country Manager Nikhil Ganju said.

“For most Indian travellers, especially those travelling for leisure, free breakfast is very important when deciding where to book and results from this study show that they may do better to forego a hotel breakfast in favour of dining out locally in the morning since this is where the biggest savings can usually be made,” he added.