Union Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay today said tourism sector would be developed in a 'big way' in the 12th Five-Year Plan to attract more international tourists in the country by creating best infrastructure.

Addressing a press conference today, Sahay said Government of India's assessment is that the tourism sector can help alleviate poverty and generate employment opportunities. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Planning Commission have recognised tourism sector as one of the major sectors to create jobs and focus would be given to tourism in the 12th Five Year plan, the minister said.

Underlining the need to attract more number of international tourists to the country, Sahay informed that the government would develop best infrastructure for tourism sector on the JNNURM model as per a PTI report. Observing that outbound tourism was three times more than the inbound one, he said "if we attract five million more international tourists we need 4.5 lakh hotel rooms in the country".

Sahay said Andhra Pradesh is one of the favoured destinations for tourists and would be allocated more share in the 12th five year plan for tourism development.Visakhapatnam city, which had natural beauties like hills, sea spots and Buddhist monuments, can be developed as a prominent tourist destination, Sahai added.

He asked the concerned authorities to prepare a master plan for tourism development for the district including Araku Valley. Andhra Pradesh Tourism Minister Vatti Vasanth Kumar said that the state government was giving more importance for the tourism development by developing six major cities, including Hyderabad.