Tourism: Getting the Act Together

A correspondent writes: The south Indian tourism ministers' conference, held this week in Kovalam, witnessed a chorus in support of 'coordinated' action by the southern states to realise their tourism potential. Union minister for tourism and culture Jagmohan highlighted the disparate tax rates among the states on various services as being responsible for the stunted growth of tourism. He then lobbed the ball into the states' lap by asking them to come up with a 'master plan' for the region and promising 'more concessions' apart from the recent service-tax sops if the latter fell 'in line'. It is not clear whether such a 'master plan' will coexist with or supersede the national tourism policy, now postponed to the end of the current fiscal year.