NEW DELHI - India and Singapore Tuesday signed a joint action plan which, officials said, would help both countries attract more tourists.

According to the plan, tourists visiting Singapore will be offered an option to include a four-five day trip to India in their itinerary, thus adding variety to their holiday.

Lawrence Leong Yue Kheong of the Singapore tourism board pointed out that there is an emergence of new trends amongst tourists like preference for short halts, short vacations and more value for money travel. He said that if both the countries came together, the needs of the tourists could be met.

India has a wide range of tourism while we have a big flow of tourists. For instance, last year Singapore received 10 million tourists. What we noticed is that most of our tourists don’t want to stay in Singapore all the time and go elsewhere too.

Therefore if we create a menu of options and give them a proposition of a four-five day getaway to India, it will attract them. For instance there is a clear interest towards the Buddhist circuit tourism in India in South East Asia, Kheong said.

But it’s not just tourists who come to Singapore we are talking about. Even people from Singapore can avail this. Most destinations in India are four-five hours away from Singapore by air, he added.

And both the countries will do joint marketing to promote this plan.

Indian Tourism Minister Kumari Selja said both the countries will cooperate further so that cruise tourism can take off in a big way and other products like wellness and rural tourism can also attract more visitors.

Also, now that India is allowing 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in hotel and hospitality and convention centres, we are hoping that Singapore will invest in India, Selja said.

Kheong added: We have suggested that India, at the government level, should put together a clear dossier of what the opportunities here are, what is the five-year-plan and about the infrastructure. This will help the Singapore business community.

Also, the business communities of both the countries should work together to make the entire plan work.