Gujarat goes PPP way to revive its tourist amenities

After the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) criticised the working of hotels and wayside amenities run by the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd (TCGL) in its latest report, the state government seems to be getting its act together. For starters, TCGL is looking for private partners to operate and manage 14 of its wayside amenities, tendering of which has already been done.

If this model works well, TCGL, a company incorporated in June 1975 for development of tourism industry in the state, will also consider leasing out some of its Toran brand of hotels, which are running in losses.

A senior official close to the development informed that as of now the state government was looking for private partners who will run and manage the wayside amenities owned by TCGL across the highways traversing the state.

"The idea is to develop well-maintained toilet blocks, parking lots, and refreshments for travellers at these joints. We have around 14 such properties as of now. However, when the number goes up, it would be difficult for TCGL to manage and staff them,'' he said adding that the process of awarding is likely to be over in about a month's time.

The tariff for services offered would be decided by the private operator, and TCGL would draw a fixed annual sum from the operator. "This is something similar to leasing out. The initial contract would be for five years, and post review, it could be extended for another five years," the official informed.

A wayside amenity is typically a facility with a restaurant and a couple of rooms to cater to the tourists' requirements of food and rest while travelling on the highways.

As for the Toran Hotels, the CAG report highlighted that between 2009 to 2014, not only the number of hotels operated went down from 14 to 11, so did the occupancy rates, which went down from 42.78 per cent in 2009-10 to 34.96 per cent in 2013-14.

"Though these hotels are situated at famous tourist places having a rich heritage, culture, wild life, hill station and religious importance etc, the average occupancy was always lower than the all India average. This indicates that even the hotels located at famous tourist places could not capture the inflow of tourists," the CAG report stated.

The report had further criticised TCGL stating that while the company fixes and revises room tariff at the head office on the basis of inputs received from the units, there was no rational basis for fixation of tariff based on various factors like actual occupancy, availability of infrastructure, tariff structure of other private hotels in the close vicinity etc.

An official in the state tourism department too admitted that the Toran hotels had lost their luster primarily on account of lack of refurbishments done to these properties. "If the public-private-partnership (PPP) model that we have adopted for the wayside amenities works out well, we can then think of extending the same to some of our Toran hotels as well," he said.