To increase inbound tourism in the country, there is a need to develop new destinations and improve infrastructure of the existing ones, Union Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahai has said. "Tourism as an industry has the potential to become one of the largest employment generation sector in the country, for which we need to increase the inbound tourism. To attract inbound tourists, we need to create new destinations and strengthen infrastructure of the existing ones," Sahai said at a function organised by Thomas Cook India.

Stating that tourism has become one of the top agendas for the Centre, the Minister said, "we are working with the states for developing infrastructure." He further said all high revenue generating sectors should be on public private partnership (PPP) models, including tourism. Maharashtra Tourism Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said the existing and the emerging tourist destinations need to create a pool of skilled manpower for the sector to continue providing quality services.

Thomas Cook India' Centre of Learning today released a book, which is a compilation of winning research papers from across the country, initiated through its initiative Disha - platform for research in tourism.