 bill no  28 of  2018 the national tourism (sustainable development and promotion) bill, 2018 by shri anurag  singh thakur, mp a billto provide for the constitution of a sustainable tourism interventions council for establishment of tourism as an organized sector in india, for job-creation, higher foreign exchange reserve and greater cultural intermingling and  for matters connected therewith or incidental theretowhereas the united nations world tourism organization in its bali  declaration on tourism recognizes tourism as a major contributor to world economy and one that may enhance quality of human relationships in september 1996and whereas the seoul declaration on peace and tourism adopted on the september,2001 at seoul recognizes tourism as a means to promote world peacebe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-ninth year of the republic of india as follows:—(2) it extends to the whole of  india (3) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, appointdefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—5(a) "agency" refers to the skill enhancement certification agency constitutedunder section 7;(b) "chairperson" refers to the chairperson of the sustainable tourisminterventions council established under section 3;10(c) "council" means the sustainable tourism interventions council established section 3;(d) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act; (e) "states" means the state governments referred to in under article 1 of the constitution of india; and(f) "task force" means the marketing task force constituted under section 9153 (1) the central government shall, within sixty days of the commencement of this act, by notification in the official gazette, establish a council to be known as the sustainable tourism interventions council for carrying out the purposes of this actestablishment of sustainable tourism interventions council(2) the council shall consist of,—(a)  the union tourism minister, ex-officio, chairperson;20(b) the union ministers of environment, forests and climate change, finance,housing and urban affairs and external affairs —members;(c) the state tourism ministers— members; (d) the secretary to union tourism ministry—member; (e) the secretaries to state tourism ministries—member;25(f) representatives from hotel associations, travel agent's  associations,adventure sports operator's association and other  interested groups of tourismindustry; and30(g) three other persons from amongst the persons, having outstanding contribution or expertise in the field of development and promotion of tourism industry and having experience of working in the tourism trade for at least ten yearsto be nominated by the central government, by notification in the official gazette, in such manner as may be prescribed35(3) the term of the members of the council referred to under clauses  (f) and (g) of sub-section (2) shall be for four years from the date of election or nomination or attainment of the age of seventy years or whichever is earlier and shall not be eligible for the re-election or re-nomination40(4) the salary and allowances payable to and other terms and conditions of service of members referred to under clauses (f) and (g) of sub-section (2) shall be such as may be prescribed(5) the council shall meet at least once in a year to decide the annual agendaemployees of the council4 (1) the central government shall depute to the service of the council such of its employees from the tourism department or from any other department or may employ any person on contractual basis as it considers  necessary for carrying out the purposes of this act (2) the salary and allowances payable to and other terms and conditions of service of deputed and contractual employees shall be such as may be prescribed5 the council shall,—functions of the council5(a) make recommendations to the union and the states on important issues related to tourism including tax-subsidies, new destinations, international promotions and employment;(b) create annual state-specific action plans on issues mentioned underclause (a);(c) create and discover new tourist destinations;10(d) except for adventure tourism destinations, connect through adequate roadconnectivity and regulated transport infrastructure;(e) provide health centres intermittently to destinations of trekking and hiking; (f) recognize all buildings older than one hundred and fifty years as vintagebuilding;15(g) constitute a heritage fund both at the central and state level, throughappropriate financial tools, which shall be used to acquire vintage buildings as recognized under clause (i) under their jurisdictions;(h) undertake ease-of-tourism initiative using the tourism satellite account constituted under section 6 to release biennial rankings on the ability of the state government to attract tourists, domestic and foreign;20(i) take cognizance of the state security in each state for tourists based on howfriendly the state police is it to the tourists;(j) establish a standard operating procedure for each state for sensitizing thepeople of the states for friendly reception of all kinds of tourists and for helping them in understanding the culture of the state;25(k) strive to reduce the consumption of energy-intensive and water-intensivetourism industry through certification to promote sustainable tourism infrastructure; and30(l) constitute a sub-council consisting of representatives of centralgovernment and state governments to grant energy conservation certificate to the energy-intensive and water- intensive tourism industry6 (1) the central government shall, by notification in the official gazette, constitute a tourism satellite account for the economic measurement of tourism in the countryconstitution of tourism satellite accounts(2) the tourism satellite account shall include,—35(a) harmonization and reconciliation of tourism statistics from an economic perspective;(b) tourism economic data that is comparable with other economic statistics; and40(c) inbound domestic tourism and outbound tourism expenditure includinginternal tourism expenditure, production accounts of tourism industries, the gross value added (gva) and gross domestic product (gdp) attributable to tourism, employment, investment, government consumption and non-monetary indicators457 (1) the central government shall, by notification in the official gazette,constitute an agency to be known as the skill enhancement certification agency for carrying out the purposes of this actconstitution of skill enhancement certification agency(2) the agency shall,—(a) establish and recognize skill development institutions which provide courses in any such activity which aid in tourism; and(b) provide to every student who successfully complete courses in tourism guides, languages, cookery and driving a certificate for acquiring respective skills5target five states8 (1) the central government shall, in consultation with the council, choosefive states every two years, from the five regions of the country, namely, north, south, west, east and north-east, to form a group to be known as the target five states for development and promotion of tourism in those states10(2) the central government shall, in consultation with the council, for the purposes of development and promotion of tourism in target five states chosen under sub-section (1),—(a) allot a fixed percentage of budget of target five states for tourism inthose states;15(b) grant tax-holiday for a stipulated period of time to any project by aprivate party that may increase the number of tourists and also the stay of tourists in the target five states;(c) develop tourism circuits viz, spiritual, adventure and natural;20(d) develop nodes in tourism circuits keeping in view the global standardsin cleanliness, water and energy efficiency, crowd management, security, policing and hospitality;(e) renovate historical sites to maintain and preserve the monuments fromthe vagaries of nature and man-made elements like pollution;25(f) establish at least one museum to be developed and maintained by acorporate entity or any other organization;(g)recognize annual festivals in the target five states, ranging from tribalto more modern festivals; and(h) train the festival conductors with event management training, or givethem the necessary professional assistance30constitution of marketing task force9 (1) the central government shall, in consultation with the council, constitutea task force to be known as the marketing task force for marketing and campaigning of the tourism in the country(2) the task force shall consist of,—35(a) a chief public relations officer having compulsory training in marketing, even if recruited from all india civil services; and(b) representatives from the marketing and personal relations industry, to be appointed by the central government in such manner as may be prescribed(3) the task force shall,—(a) strive to develop positive image of tourism in india and also in other countries;40(b) make tailor-made ad campaigns and other marketing modes to promotetourism in the target five states;(c) report negative experiences of tourists in a particular place as collated through analytics to the local administration for their immediate redressal; and(d) showcase the trouble-shooting and hassle-free tourism experiences in the place10 (1) the council shall, by notification in the official gazette, formulate adequate schemes and policies to incentivise the organizations and buildings involved in tourism industry to promote and develop environment friendly tourism in the country5(2) every organizations and buildings involved in tourism industry in order to avail the incentives of the schemes and policies formulated under sub-section (1) shall ensure that—formulation of schemes and policies to promote and develop environment friendly tourism(a) purchasing policy favours environmentally responsible and eco-friendlyproducts for building materials, capital goods, food and consumables;(b) purchase of disposable and consumer goods is measured, and the organisationactively seeks ways to reduce their use;10(c) energy consumption be measured, sources indicated, and measures to decreaseoverall consumption be adopted, while encouraging the use of renewable energy;(d) water consumption be measured, sources indicated and measures to decreaseoverall consumption be adopted;15(e) step-by-step plan to identify, and then quantify, sources of greenhouse gasemissions under its control, and activate measures to offset climate change in a timebound manner is effectively implemented;(f) waste water including grey water, is treated effectively and reused, whereverpossible;(g) solid waste management plan is implemented, with quantitative goals tominimise waste that is non-biodegradable, not reused or recycled;20(h) use of harmful substances including pesticides, harmful chemicals, swimmingpool disinfectants and cleaning material is minimized, substituted, when available, by innocuous products, and all chemical use is properly managed;(i) pollution from noise, light, runoff, erosion, ozone-depleting compounds andair and soil contaminants is reduced;25(j) biodiversity, ecosystems and landscapes are conserved; (k) refrain from participation in, accept, allow or encourage the use of, or displayor trade in endangered species of flora and fauna, except trophy displays, as permitted under the law:30(1) no wildlife is held in captivity; (m) use of endemic native species for landscaping and restoration and takesmeasures to avoid the introduction of invasive alien species;(n) biodiversity conservation, including supporting natural protected areas andareas of high biodiversity value is supported;35(o) interactions with wildlife not produce adverse effects on the viability ofpopulations in the wild; and(p) any disturbance of natural ecosystems is minimised, and, if it occurs inadvertently, steps are taken for immediate rehabilitation and/or compensatory contribution for conservation of management40audit and account11 (1) the council shall maintain proper accounts and other relevant recordsand prepare annual statement of accounts in such form as may be prescribed(2) the accounts and funds of the council shall be audited by the comptroller and auditor general of india and any expenditure incurred in connection with such audit shall be payable by the council(3) the accounts of the council as certified by the comptroller and auditor general of india together with the audit report thereon shall be forwarded annually to the central government which shall cause it to be laid before each house of parliamentprotection of action taken in good faith512 no suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against any person orauthority for anything which has been done or intended to be done in good faith under this act or the rules made thereunderpower to remove difficulty13 (1) if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this act, the centralgovernment may, by order, published in the official gazette, make such provisions not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as may appear to be necessary for removing the difficulty:10provided that no such order shall be made after the expiry of two years from the dateof commencement of this act(2) every order made under this section shall be laid, as soon as may be after it ismade, before each house of parliament15power to make rules14 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, makerules for carrying out the purposes of this act20(2) every rule made under this act shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both the houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule statement of objects and reasonstoday tourism is an important economic sector for any country tourism is also a source of revenue and economic growth for an ancient civilization like india, tourism shall play a pivotal role in driving not just our messages and ancient wisdom, but shall also attract the world's tourists to indiatourism is also increasingly being recognised for its contribution to national development strategies and in the global development tourism has been identified by the united nations (un) as one of the ten sectors to drive the change towards a green economy and was included in the rio+20 outcome document as one of the sectors capable of making "a significant contribution to the three dimensions of sustainable development, has close linkages to other sectors, and can create decent jobs and generate trade opportunities"india's share in international tourist arrivals is around 118 per cent moreover our foreign exchange due to tourism is also closer to $22 billion for a country like india with rich history, heritage and culture, the potential from tourism is much highertherefore, the need is to channelize several policy interventions for tourism in india and create an affirmative legislative framework to tap into our tourism potential and make india as  the prominent tourism country around the worldhence this billnew delhi;anurag singh thakurjanuary 3, 2018 financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for establishment of a sustainable tourism interventions council it also provides for appointment of representatives from hotel associations, etc to the council clause 4 provides for deputation of employees of the central government to the council it also provides for employment of persons on contractual basis to the council clause 5 provides for constitution of a heritage fund to acquire vintage buildings as recognized under this act clause 6 provides for constitution of a tourism satellite account for economic measurement of tourism clause 7 provides for constitution of an skill enhancement certification agency clause 8 provides for choosing target five states for development and promotion of tourism in those states clause 9 provides for constitution of a marketing task force for marketing and campaigning of tourism in the country clause 10 provides for formulation of schemes and policies to incentivize the organizations and buildings involved in tourism industry clause 11 provides for maintenance of accounts and other relevant records of the council the bill, therefore, if enacted will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is likely to involve a recurring expenditure of about rupees fifty crore per annuma non-recurring expenditure of about rupees twenty crore is also likely to be involved memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 14 empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill as the rules will relate to matters of detail only, the delegation of legislative power is of a normal character———— a billto provide for the constitution of a sustainable tourism interventions council for establishment of tourism as an organized sector in india, for job-creation, higher foreign exchange reserve and greater cultural intermingling and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto————(shri anurag singh thakur, mp)mgipmrnd—3686ls(s3)—31-01-2018