Category Archives: MOT

During the TravTalk Digital Conclave, Suman Billa, Director, Technical Cooperation & Silk Road Development, UNWTO said that it may take almost 7 years for tourism to scale back growth achieved in recent years. According to him, the global tourism demand will not be the same again post-COVID-19 crisis is over. “COVID-19 may cost tourism seven years of growth – that’s seven years of lost jobs and lost opportunities. UNWTO’s recommendations for recovery urge governments to act decisively to protect jobs, protect companies and include tourism in all recovery plans,” the former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. In its analysis estimating the global impact, UNWTO predicted a loss of 290-400 million international tourist arrivals globally. 

The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) held a virtual conference with the tourism and hospitality sector associations of the industry recently, which was led by Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary Tourism, MOT, along with senior officials of the Ministry. The Associations represented through remote conferencing were FAITH, CII, FICCI, PHDCCI and IMAI. The industry put forth a number of ideas and suggestions for tiding over the crisis created by COVID-19 in the sector of tourism and hospitality. The Ministry on its part shared the concerns and assured the associations that the government is very much with them in this grim hour and that they would work towards the suggestions put forth. There would be a lot of thrust on promoting domestic tourism was a common takeaway. MOT is using its social handles to create awareness of the need to stay at home safe in the period of lockdown and prepare to travel once the world opens up. In the meantime, the course modules of the Institutes of Hotel Management are being held online and faculty and students are using technology to remain abreast with their course curriculum.

India Tourism Development Corporation will provide up to 2000 cooked and packed meals every day during the lock down for the health workers of government hospitals (AIIMS & RML) in the state capital as well as to other needy people through local administration. Commenting on this initiative, Prahlad Singh Patel, Tourism Minister, says, “ITDC will continue to work with all the stake holders to aid the community at large. These are testing times which all of us are going through. The Government has been doing an exceptional job and we stand in solidarity with them to overcome the pandemic which is impacting millions of lives and countries across the globe.  As Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls for the nation to work hand in hand, ITDC in a humble move will provide upto 2000 meals per day to the healthcare professionals and other needy people as part of CSR activity. Everything we do today combats the massive challenge that we are facing as a nation and as a world.”

Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, with an aim to extend support to the foreign tourists who are stranded in our country because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has set up a portal to disseminate information regarding the services that can be availed by them. The portal is titled ‘Stranded in India’. And it is also hosted on Incredible India website also. The portal will help tourists get information/details of State Tourism departments and Regional offices of Ministry of tourism to help you to stay safe and healthy while in India. It will also help you find information on ways of getting back to your home country. Please visit strandedinindia.com or incredibleindia.org for further details.

Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, has revealed that they have put forth the industry representation and requests in front of the Finance Minister, so that they can work towards reducing the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on businesses. “The industry stakeholders need working capital and they are looking at interventions either from the banking sector in easing out of norms, or they will be looking at support through reduction of taxes. These are the things that would leave money in the hands of the industry as of now. We would be carrying out or taking with us the representation of the industry and the thrust would be that the industry needs to survive so that job losses do not happen. I would refer to the honourable PM’s speech to the nation, where he has himself mentioned that we should make sure that we don’t stop wages of anyone. Hence, all the efforts of the Ministry of Finance would be to ensure that no such job losses happen in the tourism and hospitality sectors.”

The meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture was held in New Delhi. The meeting was led by its Chairman the Minister of State ( IC) for Tourism and Culture, Prahlad Singh Patel. The agenda of the meeting was “ Promotion / Development of rural Tourism and home stays and Improvement in Global Benchmarking of tourism sector”. The Ministry of Culture focused on various cultural activities like fairs and festivals. The Members of the committee gave innovative suggestions on promotion of tourism and culture for Incredible India. The Minister highlighted on the need to convene at regular intervals and he also highlighted on the need to give specific suggestions on aspects of roads development so that the diverse parts of India can be accessed by all to appreciate the immense potential of India’s art, heritage, culture and natural sites.

The Indian government has announced the suspension of all regular visas to India in view of rapid surge of COVID-19 cases in the country. In an order, the Health Ministry said all existing visas except diplomatic, official, UN/International organisations, employment and project visa are suspended till 15th April 2020. This will come into effect from 1200 GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure. Any foreign national who intends to travel to India for compelling reason may contact the nearest Indian mission, visa-free travel facility granted to OCI cardholders is also kept in abeyance till 15th April,” read a communique, issued after a meeting of a Group of Ministers. All incoming travellers, including Indian nationals, arriving from or having visited China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany after 15th February 2020 shall be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days. Incoming travellers, including Indian nationals, are advised to avoid non-essential travel and are informed that they can be quarantined for a minimum of 14 days on their arrival in India. The notification also strongly advised Indian nationals to avoid all non-essential travel abroad. Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic.

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism and Culture, Government of India, has said that they are thinking of declaring 2021 as Visit India Year, with an aim to invite people across the world to the country and showcase its diversity. “We want people across the world to know India and see its cultural heritage and its attractions. In order to showcase that we are in discussion to declare 2021 as Visit India Year. We want to make the new multilingual website and language facilities at important tourist sites, act as facilities to attract tourists from different countries across the world,” he announced at the launch of the multilingual Incredible India website in New Delhi.

The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) has launched the multilingual website of Incredible India during an event in Delhi. The website which is currently hosted in English and Hindi has been revamped with a new design to provide more information about India’s tourist destinations, attractions, experiences and providing support in Chinese, Arabic and Spanish languages. Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (I/C) unveiled the new website at The Ashok Hotel, New Delhi in presence of key stakeholders of the Indian tourism industry. Incredible India website (www.incredibleindia.org) is a promotional website of MOT for projecting India as a ‘must-visit’ destination across the globe. Incredible India 2.0 website aims towards showcasing the varied tourism products of India at a global arena by providing visitors with relevant, personalized and contextual digital experience escalating tourism awareness, attraction and opportunities.

Rakesh Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary, MOT, will be travelling for ITB Berlin 2020 with a delegation of around 49 exhibitors, which will be led by Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism and Culture. The format has been changed this time for ITB Berlin, as there will not be a presentation and press conference, but a panel discussion instead. “We will be having a breakfast meeting with the German FTOs in Berlin. We have a panel discussion on the first day, which will focus on global trends in tourism focusing on Incredible India and will be moderated by a CNN journalist. It will have around 5 panelists including German tour operators who will be talking about India and their experience. While there will not be a specific campaign for ITB Berlin, we will project the efforts we are taking and the whole range of offerings we have been developing at MOT. Apart from that we have small group engagements and one-to-one engagements at the VIP lounge at India Pavilion of ITB. We are trying to project India as an experiential and transformational destination for the travellers, which is one of the key messages that we are putting across,” he shares. “The Ministerial delegation would consist of 49 co-exhibitors, including state governments, tour operators, hotels, wellness centres, as well as Ayurveda society. We’ve taken a huge space of 705 sq. m. CMD, ITDC, will also be there. It will be a combined marketing effort by the Government and the stakeholders,” reveals Verma.