MTDC pulled up for poor tourist facilities

Pulling up the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) for "failing" to develop tourist facilities, the CAG has noted that the number of foreigners visiting the state has dropped and those availing its infrastructural facilities were negligible.

Being the state's public undertaking in the tourism sector, MTDC should have made great strides in developing tourist facilities, a CAG report said.

However, it has neither identified critical/nodal areas for effecting micro level planning to augment tourism nor evolved clear milestones which were overall or destination specific for development of tourism in the state, it said.

The report observed that the number of foreign tourists availing the MTDC's infrastructural facilities was negligible.

Though the tourists visiting the state indicated an increasing trend during the period 2005-06 to 2009-10, the arrival of foreign tourists in the state was less than 10 per cent of the total number of tourists visiting the state.

Similarly, the number of foreign tourists who availed MTDC facilities was negligible, the report said.

In 2005-06, the number of foreigners who visited the state was 4,678 which dropped to 2,008 in 2009-10, it said.

The CAG report said even though the tourism policy was formulated in 2006 with a 23 point action plan to be implemented in the next five years with a long term vision for 2025, the company had not prepared a concrete corporate plan or five years action plan keeping in view the requirements of the policy.

According to the CAG, MTDC had no system of collecting tourist statistics. The report said the Centre, with the consent of the state government, had appointed A C Neilsen as consultant for collecting tourist survey statistics in 2008.

However, it was noticed that the consultant had furnished only the data related to number of tourists who had arrived in the state.

MTDC did not insist on other details necessary for analysing the scope for further tourism development, it added.

No structured mechanism for collecting tourist statistics was developed in the state by the MTDC even after expiry of the first four years of open rationalising of the tourism policy, the report stated.

According to the tourist data available with the CAG, out of the 137.18 lakh foreign tourists who visited India in 2010 only 19.99 lakh came to Maharashtra.

"This was just 7.77 per cent of the total tourist inflow," the report added. The report said that the total tourist inflow in 2009-10 in the state had seen an increase of 13.83 per cent over the previous year.

But, only 2.07 per cent of the domestic and foreign tourists availed accommodation in MTDC's resorts and hotels, it added.