In a bid to promote Punjab as a major tourism destination, the state is inviting investments from private players in the hotel sector. Speaking at the Hotel Investment Forum of India (HIFI) 2013 conference in Delhi, Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab said that the state will be the "next big destination for investment and tourism will be a major focus area".
He also tipped-off on an upcoming policy especially for the hotel sector to facilitate its growth in the region.
“We plan to promote Punjab as a tourism destination and will be looking for some major investments this year,” Badal said, adding that the state is coming up with a "very attractive" policy this month for the hotel industry that will highly incentivize it.
Punjab is ramping up the infrastructure in the state aiming to earn big bucks from the tourism and hospitality sector. “Tourism will be the biggest earner for us. We are going to make Punjab an entertainment hub of north India. We are building up the infrastructure with new highways and expressways, develop area-specific tourism circuits to present Punjab as destination for the future. Now we also want to focus on international tourism ,” Badal said.
The state is in advanced stages of developing a 4,400 acres entertainment circuit in Ludhiana that would include hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, sports parlours, adventure sports areas for horse racing and Safaris and much more.