Even as Budget 2012-12 has addressed the immediate concerns of the aviation sector through external commercial borrowing (ECB), it has ignored the travel and tourism industry as a whole, Travel Agents' Association of India said on Saturday.

"The ECB of up to USD 1 billion in loans for the airline industry for a period of one year, proposed in the Budget 2012-13, will address the immediate concerns of the civil aviation sector. The government is also permitting direct import of ATF by Indian carriers, as actual users, which is also good news," TAAI President Iqbal Mulla said on Saturday.

However, he said that on the whole, the travel and tourism industry, which is the largest employment generator in the country, has once again not been given the importance it should have got.

TAAI was also disappointed for not being granted the industry status, for which it has, along with other associations, made representations to the Finance Ministry in the past many years.

Besides the hospitality sector and other tourism-related service providers, who earn foreign exchange, although included as the 13th sector in the Service Export Promotion Council (SEPC), set up by the Ministry of Commerce, recently, did not get any benefits, unlike those extended to other service exporters, who earn foreign exchange, he said.

The proposed increase in service tax to 12 percent will act as a dampener for the growth of the sector, which will result in spike in cost, Mulla added.