Budget 2024: Centre targets improving tourism in Bihar, Odisha

The Bodhi tree and the Mahabodhi temple complex at Bodhgaya, Bihar. Image: Shutterstock

At the Union Budget 2024, a majority of the announcements related to tourism were made for Bihar, with an aim to boost travel to historical and spiritual sites in the city. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Nalanda will be supported as a tourist centre, and efforts will be dedicated towards revamping the historic Nalanda University.

Further, in order to enhance tourism to Bihar’s Vishnupad Temple situated in Gaya and the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, she announced allocating funds to improve the corridors leading to these temples, which will be, “…supported, modelled on the successful Kashi Vishwanath Temple corridor, to transform them into world-class pilgrimage and tourist destinations”, she said.

Additionally, the minister announced a strategy to develop Gaya city as an industrial hub with the government’s focus on measures to improve connectivity and tourism in the locality.

As part of this plan, several infrastructure projects have been allocated Rs26,000 crore. These include the Patna-Purnea expressway, the Buxar-Bhagalpur highway, and a two-lane bridge over the Ganga river in Buxar, along with the Bodhgaya-Rajgir-Vaishali-Darbhanga corridor.

Rajgir, an ancient city famous in Bihar, known for its Jain temple and hot springs, will also undergo development to attract tourists and promote wellness tourism.

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Odisha also found a mention in the speech, with the central government announcing assistance to improve tourism in the state known for its scenic beauty, wildlife and beaches. "The enhanced road infrastructure will bolster the travel and tourism sector. We also welcome the initiatives to develop iconic spiritual and cultural sites into world-class tourist hotspots,” says Rajesh Magow, co-founder and group CEO of online travel aggregator (OTA), MakeMyTrip.

Other key highlights included a simpler tax regime for foreign cruise companies for operating domestic vessels in India. “This initiative aims to encourage foreign cruise owners to operate in India, thereby providing a significant boost to cruise tourism in the country,” says Rikant Pittie, co-founder of OTA, EaseMyTrip.

Magow adds that the decision to reduce the TDS rate on ecommerce operators to 0.1 percent is a move in the right direction. “Also, the provision of credit for TCS against income tax under 'Income from Salaries' is logical and will provide a much-desired relief to taxpayers who travel internationally," he explains.

While the Budget was welcomed by tourism experts, they also expressed their concerns regarding some initiatives that were missed in the speech. “The support given to spiritual tourism through corridor development and cruise tourism will support these sub-sectors, but there was potential for this Budget to address a lot more opportunities for growth in Indian tourism in a structured manner,” says Ashish Gupta, consulting CEO, at Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH). “It would also have been nice to see an increase in the marketing and publicity budget, infrastructure status support to hospitality, abolishment of TCS on travel and reduction in GST rates on tourism travel and hospitality.”

Rajiv Mehra, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, adds, “We are totally disappointed with the Budget announcement. We had given multiple recommendations with regards to boosting inbound tourism, but they seem to have been totally ignored.” He continues, “It hurts because the government’s objective is to generate employment and no other industry can do it better than travel and tourism.”