G. Kishan Reddy, Minister of Tourism, said, “Without connectivity, there cannot be any investment or development, which is why connectivity is the key to the country’s growth. India is the only nation that builds 30 km of national highway every day, thus creating continuous connectivity.”  

E.M. Najeeb, Senior Vice President, IATO said, “the budget allocation is tourism must increase. Most of the states are increasing their budget allocation in tourism and the central government should also increase their allocation to three times or four times in the tourism segment.” 

Egypt’s Deputy Minister of Finance for Economic Affairs Sherine ElSharkawy said, “India is an interesting destination both for tourism because of the different cultures and also for investment. There is a lot of business, there is a lot of opportunities, especially in the IT sector”. 

Ravi Gosain, Vice President, IATO said, “Inbound tourism has a lot of scope, it’s a value product compared to the domestic. It is very important to grow inbound parallelly to domestic tourism. The government should provide financial incentive and some facilitation in policies to help tourism industry grow.” 

Arvind Singh, Secretary, MoT said that the government wants to focus on green growth, sustainable development, and penetration of digital initiatives in tourism. “Our penetration in tourism is not so much and that is one of the areas where we rank low in our global rankings”, he said. 

The Adventure Tour Operators Association of India has always believed in promoting adventure tourism in a safe and sustainable manner and aims to create this awareness and mitigate risk in adventure tourism activities. ATOAI is delighted to announce that the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is organizing a Disaster Management Course for ATOAI Adventure Guides. 40 adventure guides with a minimum experience of 5 years will be trained by NDRF from 30th January 2022 to 4th February 2023 at 8 Battalion, NDRF, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.   The Adventure guides will be trained on: Disaster Management Search & Rescue First Aid & CPR. Fire Safety Water Emergencies Snake & Animal Bite Group Exercise / Leadership Miscellaneous & General Topics This course will be a force multiplier in providing rescue and support during natural disasters in our country and will also up skill adventure professionals / guides in providing safer adventure experiences to adventure tourists. ATOAI believes that such initiatives will go a long way in bringing India on top of the preferred adventure tourism destinations in the world. Adventure guides doing the program will also be made honorary wardens for keeping ‘the great outdoors’ pristine and ensure that the ATOAI safety guidelines are followed in letter and spirit.

This year, approximately 19000 foreign tourists visited Kashmir out of over 22 lakh tourists. Tourism Director Fazal Al-Huseeb said that hotels were fully booked by tourists at tourist spots in Kashmir including Gulmarg during New Year. “We expect record tourist arrivals in 2023,” he said.  

Runeep Sangha, Executive Director, PATA India Chapter said, “It’s time we have a separate strategy for India as a long-haul destination because people coming from the Americas, Canada, Europe, etc are the markets from our travelers spend the most money and if we put together and showcase India as a long-haul destination, we should report benefits.” 

Tourism Minister Jayanta Mallabaruah highlighted that with the industry status, fresh investments in tourism infrastructures will contribute towards rapid employment generation, public-private partnership and infrastructure development. This move will further encourage and boost private investment in the above areas of the tourism sector.