The outlay for Union Tourism Ministry saw a marginal increase of 1.82 per cent while that of the Culture Ministry witnessed a 7 per cent hike in the Union Budget 2019-2020.
Rs 1,378.53 crore has been allocated for building tourism infrastructure, while Rs 575.50 crore has been allocated for promotion and publicity. For the Culture Ministry, an allocation of Rs 875.33 crore has been made for central schemes and projects.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said 17 "iconic sites" will be transformed into world-class destinations to give a boost to the tourism sector while one hundred new clusters will be set up in 2019-20 to enable 50,000 artisans to come into the economic value chain.
The Finance Minister said the Government will take measures to ensure that the rich tribal culture of the country is preserved.
Sitharaman said a digital tribal repository will be created, in which photos, videos, details of origin, education, lifestyle, skill sets, traditional arts and other anthropological information will be stored.
"The Government will launch a mission to integrate traditional artisans and creative persons with the global market to obtain patents for them," she said.