India plans to strengthen its rural tourism project and give foreign visitors a peek into the country's unique rural way of life.

Describing the rural project as "responsible tourism", the Tourism Secretary, Sujit Banerjee, said: "This is a very innovative rural tourism project which positions India's rural way of life as a unique visitor experience."

"Now we are going into wellness, cruise, rural, adventure and faith tourism," Banerjee told PTI. He also said that the current global financial downturn will not affect the burgeoning tourism industry in the country.

"We are absolutely hopeful that we will be able to overcome the current economic downturn and have robust growth rate in tourism," he said.

The Secretary said the Tourism Ministry will strive to reduce hotel tariff and bring hospitality sector on par with infrastructure sector.

"We have requested hoteliers to reduce the tariff by 10 to 15 per cent and urged the Reserve Bank of India to put the hospitality sector on par with the infrastructure sector rather than the real estate sector to bring down rate of interest for hospitality sector," he said.

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