Category Archives: MOT

JK Mohanty, CMD, Swosti Group, has said that the Ministry of Tourism should include Odisha in their Incredible India campaign worldwide. “Odisha has many natural and heritage sites. However, it’s missing from the MOT’s Incredible India campaign. I request the MOT to include it in the campaign so that it gets foreign tourist arrival too,” he said. 

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, has said that the Global Media Campaign, which was stuck up due to some issues in the government of India Ministry of Finance level, is now set to be launched in May. “We are in dialogue with the Ministry of Finance and I hope to get those issues sorted out quickly, so that we be able to launch our digital and TV campaigns along with the participation in all the marts. And I think this just process will start in the month of May, if all clearances are received by then,” he said. 

Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, recently reviewed the progress of the India International Convention & Expo Centre (IICC) in Dwarka, Delhi. He also asked officials to expedite the works for completion of the Phase-1 of the project. “IICC will serve as a major economic driver helping India capture a larger share of global meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions market,” said Goyal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that India is going to introduce a special AYUSH visa category. This will facilitate people to travel to India for AYUSH therapy. Also, he added, “’Heal in India’ can become a big brand of this decade.” Wellness centers based on Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha etc. can be very popular, he said.

According Reserve Bank of India data, the money sent abroad by Indians for travel grew threefold from $316.81 million in February 2021 to close to $1 billion ($980.45 million) in February 2022. This is under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) for resident individuals. It crossed the pre-pandemic level of $539.74 million in February 2020. Indians spent about $3.23 billion for travel, sharply down from $6.95 billion in FY20.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) had earlier imposed a fare cap for 15 days due to the pandemic, in order for the government to control any fare hike on the sale of air tickets. As the ministry announced operations at 100% capacity after a gap of two years, airline companies have called for the removal of the fare limit. “If we talk about the fare caps, then it is my responsibility to the passengers as well as to the airlines,” Scindia said. 

Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Japan, a book launch of Novella titled ‘Healing Strings’ by Manmohan Sadana, Ex-Joint Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India was done recently. The chief guest of the occasion was Koji Yoshida, Counsellor, Embassy of Japan, New Delhi, who launched the book along with other prominent dignitaries. Talking of his book, Sadana, said, “My book will serve as a great tool to build a stronger connection and also to promote tourism between different countries.”

Ministry of Tourism has released a digital booklet of 75 destinations to rediscover India. The book features destinations ranging from spiritual centres to cultural hubs, from royal palaces to ancient cities, these sites reflect our rich culture and heritage. The booklet comes in line with the celebration of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, through which travellers can explore 75 incredible sites in India.

Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and DONER G. Kishan Reddy inaugurated the Conference of Amrit Samagam. During the inaugural day of the 2 days’ Amrit Samagam Conference,  G. Kishan Reddy also launched the Utsav Portal. The Utsav Portal website, a digital initiative launched with the aim to showcase all the events, festivals and live darshans across India to promote different regions of the country as popular tourist destinations worldwide. 

Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Tourism, has informed that for promotions and campaigns currently, they are going to remain in the digital space. “It has a wide outreach at minimal cost. It creates an effective campaign and also in terms of user profile, most people these days prefer the digital space for getting information for bookings for looking at user generated reviews. Hence, we believe that this is a space that will create informational height for incredible India. There will be a lot more users in digital space and in terms of the content, there is so much diversity in the country that we will continue to bring the different offerings of India as we go along with the opening. Also, there is a lot of excitement within the travel industry as well,” she says.