On World Tourism Day on Monday, chief minister Ashok Gehlot will unveil a slew of schemes including a financial assistance package for tourism units, which have been severely hit the Covid pandemic. The chief minister will also unveil guidelines for schemes like home stay, experiential and river cruise tourism, and will launch a mobile application developed by of the department of tourism.

Under Mukhyamantri Tourism Udhyog Protsahan Yojana, hotels and restaurants and other tourism units will be offered loans up to Rs 25 lakh with interest subsidy of 9%. The scheme will be part of an already existing Mukhyamantri Laghu Udhyog Protsahan Yojana under which entreprises get loans through banks with interest subsidy of up to 8%. But in case of the new Mukhyamantri Tourism Udhyog Protsahan Yojana, the subsidy could go up to 9%.

The tourism units can get loans from nationalised commercial banks, private sector scheduled commercial banks, scheduled small finance bank, regional rural bank, Rajasthan Financial Corporation and SIDBI. But it is not clear as to whether the loans will be availed for working capital needs or for expansion, diversification, and modernization projects. “We need working capital to restart the operations. In the last one and half years, the tourism units have struggled to generate income due the pandemic. That’s why the loans should not be only for expansion or diversification,” said an entrepreneur.