India – GDP Factors - Non-Indian origin foreign tourist incentive scheme

• Our local tour operators should be given tax breaks and cash refund incentives for bringing in foreign passenger of non-Indian origin. Cash refund incentives must be such a way that the tour operator ensures that the foreign tourist visits 2 or 3 places other than the city of arrival to claim tax refund and stays more than 24 hours in every city. The city of arrival and exit into India should be different to ensure cash incentives and refunds. The typical cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Goa will get some breather and new places can promote their tourism like Shillong, Andaman, religious places, etc. Major international companies like Thomas Cook and domestic majors like MakeMyTrip and yatra make no effort to bring in foreign tourists these tax benefits at airport level by AAI and add-on options to existing booking by airlines and railways. $1000 per passenger if we can bring a great wonder for an untapped billion dollar business. 

• Need all year sports calendar which includes winter sports, indoor volleyball, basketball, golf, ice hockey, beach volleyball, sword fighting etc. DD sports must be given free feed for important matches conducted by private organizations/TV channels since Sports Federation is also a part and its Govt owned
• Tour operators and Airlines must have small desk in every locality. Offline stores of makemytrip, yatra, indigo, air india must be encouraged similar to telecom top up kirana stores
• Telecom companies in India have failed to create payment banks with such a large customer base. Kirana stores if they adopt payments through sms and call it will make a huge difference for the government. 
• Utilize the luggage section of trains to full capacity with separate rate at counters using train and airfare. Show some difference in rates in courier between air and by train by Indian Railways partnering with private courier companies and India post. Show difference in rates for road, rail and air.
• Need to ensure TV channels have 1 minute ad breaks per hour with govt sponsored content approved by PIB. Many of the govt schemes don’t reach the common people knowledge through private channels. Hence the effort DD has put needs to be taken forward by other TV channels. All private channels should fulfill their social obligation and Govt has right to win this case if it has legal issue
• Ensure foreign visitors as many as possible during their winter season. They all want to avoid the peak winter in their countries like in UK and North America. Indian airlines and tour operators have failed to bring them in with offers and local tours by default at reduced rates. Existing booking of airlines and railways remain unused during most peak seasons
• Govt must funds its CSR initiatives through its major organizations like Indian Railways, Indian Oil, etc. to create science labs in govt schools, new indoor stadiums in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, libraries in tier 1 and tier 2 cities, 24 hours super markets in key places owned by these companies since many malls still don’t remain open 24 hours but railways operate 24 hours and supermarkets can play vital business (people like big bazaar and local majors can compete). What obligation has Railways done for CSR activities?
• Time for station development fee like user development fee at airports. Nominal fee ranging from Rs. 10 to Rs. 40 will make a huge difference to build malls and major facilities in railway stations. Real estate can see new energy in major hubs like railway stations.
• All religious places in India must be asked to paste their bank account details for online payments and donations. It should be made a priority to encourage digital transactions so that banks and IT can validate and provide tax reliefs appropriately

Tourism – Central UDAAN portal to claim subsidy with Aadhaar or passport as ID, all cabs/autos in India with rate card per tourist location like Shillong, Add-on 1 day tours/hotel booking for existing and new booking in Indian Railways and Airlines

•India should use a common tourism agency or Aadhaar UIDAI or RBI to manage a portal for UDAAN and discounts and other benefits for first time travelers to a particular route or sector irrespective of airline for first time travellers in that route. UDAAN must offer discounts for long distance travel also. I recently travelled many places but UDAAN/Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) effect was no where to be found, not a word by airlines or websites or in airports or in ticket booking of RCS route. RCS will see boost if portal is maintained and subsidy is issued as kms of free travel for next time booking/cash incentives credited to bank accounts. The cost of going to north east from any metro is costly than going abroad. There are no direct flights to many tourist places in India. 

• Tour operators and airlines must be present in every locality to promote tourism. Airlines and tour operators can open small desk like telecom operators to ensure major tourism boost in India. Offline small stores of makemytrip, yatra can make major difference to formalize the indian tourism industry

•UDAAN will be used in corporate booking also effectively so that the corporate traveler/employee who travels first time will explore new routes and sectors to expand his business and leisure. So create a common portal to claim 1st time travel subsidy under RCS. The user must first check eligibility for the route using Aadhaar or passport or voter id card. May be entire KYC can be shifted to RBI or Aadhaar based authority for subsidy.
•First time air travelers is eligible for UDAAN irrespective of the distance to be travelled every 3 years per route. Currently UDAAN is placed only for short distance routes and the passengers are not encouraged to explore far off places. A person from Mumbai can explore North East or the Andaman Islands only if UDAAN plays a major role for longer routes. Also leaves provided by companies are put to good use in short notice like weekends, etc. and saving our airlines. Subsidy eligibility must be done prior to travel by passenger online in govt portal and claimed post arrival as bank transfer. I never clearly get the feel of UDAAN as there is no portal involved or airlines don’t state which flights are Udaan/RCS in their portal. The entire north east region connectivity is costly as if like different region.
•These domestic routes (new RCS routes/ new airports/new direct short flights) can be cross-subsidized by allocating funds from budget and Rs.100/ticket from peak routes and Rs.200/ticket from international departures and arrivals to encourage the urban middle class to experience different sectors.  The north east & many places remain unexplored. Example: Metros – North East/Islands is costly than going abroad
•Railways and all airlines in India need to provide extra add on features while booking for cab transfers, hotels, 1 or 2 day local tours/sight seeing packages by default for selection. Both railways and airlines have failed to capitalize on the thousands of existing bookings in their systems. They have failed to provide any options to generate revenue and customer satisfaction on the other end. Local tour operators will also benefit this way. GDP needs major formal employment and revenue generation through tourism. Railways has failed to tap existing booking with add on bookings.
•Bus companies and online app based cab drivers must tie up together to provide 1 day tour packages within and outside city with rate card/location
•International arrivals of flights to India must contain similar features for passengers with hotel booking, cab booking, food, local tours, etc. International tourists if they spend $1500 in India per passenger also will make great difference. When Singapore can bring in tourists in large droves why not out airlines while booking itself add all options in one shot. Those they don’t want they can ignore. We are not providing facilities in our websites itself for these needs as a standard operating procedure.
•Railways must give discount offers to passengers who are traveling in new routes for first time which are away from base station based on historical data and places earmarked as tourist or religious sites. All travel details will be mapped to some ID card by default. Railways can generate data based on historical information and give offers for long distance travel above a certain limit. The youth and working age middle class should be encouraged to travel across the country in young age to know various regions better.