<div><strong>Haider Ali Khan</strong><br><br>The central government is ready to support golf tourism to attract more foreign visitors to the country, which has over 200 golf courses. This was said on Monday (26 October) by Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma who stressed that there is a lot of potential in golf tourism in India.</div><div> </div><div>"Golf is at nascent stage in the country and the government is ready to support this niche tourism product. There is a lot of potential of golf tourism in India," said, Mahesh Sharma at the FICCI Golf Tourism Summit in New Delhi.</div><div> </div><div>He informed that India has about 220 golf courses and some of these are best in the world. He urged for industry cooperation and said, "How best it can be explored so that it becomes strength of tourism industry in the country."</div><div> </div><div>Disagreeing with tour operators, Sharma said there is no off season for tourism in country like India. India has the strength to provide round the year tourism to the world. Something or other is available for tourists in the country round the year as we have glaciers, deserts, mountains, and vast plains as well and some of the mightiest rivers on this earth. </div><div> </div><div>"We have miles and miles of Himalayan range, longest sea beach, desert, wildlife, monuments. India is so vast that we can have round the year tourism," he added.</div><div> </div><div>President of India Golf Tourism Association, Rajan Sehgal, said, "We have about 220 golf courses in the country and about 25 are signature golf courses which are at par with international standard."</div><div> </div><div>Tourism Secretary, Vinod Zutsi, said, “India is a late entrant in the golf tourism sector. The government has given e-tourism visa facility to 113 countries and our aim is to extend the facility to total 150 countries."</div>
