Uttarakhand Tourism Policy, 2018 :

Tourism is unarguably one of the most important sectors to the state’s economy. The tourism not only contributing for over 50% of the total GSDP from 2006-07 to 2016-17, but also providing livelihood across all parts of the state (including hinterland areas.) As the State moves on its vision to become a Green Economy, tourism sector will play an important role in realizing the State’s socio-economic goals.

Vision  :

To create Uttarakhand as a global tourist destination that is safe, sustainable and by wich includs world class tourism products and services and could unleash true tourism potential of the State.

Objectives : The Objectives  of the uttarakhand tourism policy 2018 are as follows:-

• To develop & strengthen the image of Uttarakhand as a safe and tourist friendly destination.
• To create and develop new tourism destinations and unique tourism products offering unmatched experience catering to various tourist segments.
• To ensure necessary basic amenities at all tourist destinations like – parking, toilets, signages at strategic locations, ATMs, dispensaries, ticketing counters, internet and telecom facilities etc.
• To promote and develop Uttarakhand State as a wellness hub and promoting medical tourism based packages.
• To promote and develop Uttarakhand as winter tourism & Alpine tourism destination which will solve the issue of short tourist season of the state. These destinations will be specially promoted after Char Dham yatra.
• Promote inclusive tourism strategies through community based tourism ensuring equitable distribution of benefits to the local communities.
• Making disaster resilient tourism infrastructure & establish SoPs to reduce adverse effects of disaster on tourists.
• To promote balanced regional development through Hub & Spoke model and to resolve the carrying capacity issues of prominent tourist destinations.
• To ensure the involvement of other State and Central Government Ministries/ Departments to leverage their strengths and schemes (eg. Swadesh Darshan, PRASAD, AMRUT, Swachh Bharat Mission, Wellness Centre under Ayushman Bharat Scheme,Start-Up India, Hunar Se Rozgar etc.) for improvement of tourism infrastructure in the state.

Guiding Principles:

The guiding Priciples of the Uttarakhand Tourism Policy are as follows:-

a. Aggressive Marketing and Branding of Uttarakhand Tourism by running campaigns, roadshows, appointing influential celebrity as State’s Tourism Brand Ambassador, radio jingles, social networking and other appropriate platforms.

b. To ascertain capacity building of tourism workforce and increase employment through skill development.

c. To solicit participation and funding support from private sector, multilateral organisations and allied countries and donation from charitable agencies, individuals, Government Bonds, CSR, etc. in tourism infrastructure development.

d. Strengthening Tourism Trade Facilitation through single window clearance, appointing nodal officers, land banks and tourism investor’s meets/platforms.

Development Strategy :

Government of Uttarakhand has decided to develop ‘13 District 13 Destinations’. This important initiative is targeted towards holistic development of the state and will take tourism to the last mile and far flung yet beautiful districts of Uttarakhand.

Development of Potential Land banks : 1. UTDB shall create a land banks for tourism purpose in every district, as the Uttarakhand Government has decided to develop one new tourism destination in each of the 13 districts. 2. State Government has formulated “Uttarakhand Tourism Land Pooling & Implementation Rules 2017” to enable faster and easier land identification and pooling procedures for tourism. This procedure shall also provide a suitable platform (to be developed on PPPmode) for new theme based criterion. 

 Potential Tourism place  : 1. Geographical Information System (GIS) shall be leveraged for mapping of different tourist destinations across the state, which will be a ready reckoner to investors (refer map for potential tourism destinations). 2. Department of Tourism shall conduct detailed resource mapping after every 2 years for all natural, cultural, heritage tourism sites and update the information on GIS based platforms.

Identified Tourism Products / Themes : The Major Themes in which destinations across Uttarakhand can be divided are the following: a. Adventure b. Pilgrimage, Cultural & Festivals c. Wildlife & Bird Sanctuaries d. Nature & Landscape e. Health, Rejuvenation & Spiritual f. Eco/Rural Tourism g. Water Sports, Cruise, Yachts etc. h. MICE i. Buddhist j. Heritage k. Ropeways and Funicular.

Product Development& Opportunities  :

Uttarakhand is extremely rich in natural and cultural heritage, religious destinations and festivals etc. UTDB shall prepare a Detailed Tourism Road Map by March 2019 having complete inventory of tourism resources – products/activities, destinations, potential for tourism development, status of the existing infrastructure, gaps, and tourism stakeholders along with action plan in phase wise manner. The Department shall develop ‘Tourism Zones’ in strategic locations of the state to make vibrant tourism destinations. The Department shall create land banks for these tourism zones and special rules for faster approval processes, landuse shall be formulate etc. This will enable the State Tourism to develop and implement target oriented phased development of regional destinations considering special tourism products and alternate tourism options.

Institutional Framework  :

High Powered Empowered Committee (HPEC) A High Powered Empowered Committee shall be constituted to sanction all tourism projects including mega tourism projects of Private Sector or as identified by Department/UTDB on its land bank and existing properties, The investor who wishes to avail tourism sector Incentives and Subsidies of the State has to apply and get the project registered in UTDB simultaneously with Single Window Clearance System. UTDB shall forward the project with its recommedations to HPEC for approval.

Incentives / Subsidies :

  To attract tourism investment in the State the State Cabinet has accorded ‘Industry Status’ to tourism and considered tourism as a mainstay of the state economy. Now, the investors can avail attractive incentives and subsidies akin to industry under MSME Policy-2015, where total project cost is upto INR 10 Cr. The department has also made separate provisions under Mega Industrial & Investment Policy – 2015 (As amended in 2018) for attracting larger tourism and allied projects, where project cost is above INR 10 Cr.