Tag Archives: Past President

Travel and tourism investment is expected to rise by 6.7 per cent per annum over the next 10 years to Rs 5,546.3 billion in 2028, according to FICCI-Yes Bank Knowledge Paper titled ‘Tourism Infrastructure Investments- Leveraging Partnerships for Exponential Growth’. Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said that the tourism and civil aviation ministries are engaging continuously to identify solutions and implement them for the growth of both the sectors. “The way forward is a focused approach for evolving tourist places under the aviation connectivity scheme and expanding existing routes under UDAN scheme including helicopter routes in hilly and north-eastern regions. This will provide good infrastructural support to the tourism sector,” said Padhee. She also added that the Ministry of Civil Aviation is working to remove bottlenecks in remote and regional areas by providing proper navigation means, technology, better security and safety. Dr Jyotsna Suri, Past President, FICCI & Chair, FICCI Tourism Committee and CMD, Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, in her address said that increasing connectivity will boost tourism, adding that ‘one flight per day to Khajuraho will build the demand eventually’. Dipak Deva, Co-Chair, FICCI Tourism Committee and MD, SITA, TCI & Distant Frontiers also presented his views on the growth of tourism in the country at the 4th Tourism Investors Meet held in Delhi.

Realising the potential of the Indian wedding industry, FICCI organised the first-ever Wedding Tourism Summit at The Lalit to give impetus to the booming segment. The gathering was welcomed by Dr Jyostna Suri, Past President, FICCI and Chairperson – FICCI Tourism Committee. Also present at the inauguration were Ajay K Sharma, Deputy Director – Tourism, Govt of Rajasthan, along with Siddharth Chaturvedi, CEO, Eventcrafter and Secretary, EEMA. The Wedding Tourism Summit will conclude on May 26, 2017. The two-day summit gives buyers and suppliers an opportunity to interact and explore potential business opportunities under one roof and also address issues and concerns pertaining to the wedding segment. Suri said, “Weddings not only benefit the hotels where the events take place, but also the destination as well as ancillary services like florists, caterers etc. We need to tap countries like UK where there are many tourists looking for good destinations to get married in and what better place than India, with its historic hotels and other sites. The objective of this platform is to create a bigger awareness of India and the various destinations as a sought-after wedding location.” Suman Billa, Joint Secretary – Tourism, Govt of India delivered the inaugural address where he stated, “If we want to achieve our target of attaining 2 per cent of global international tourist arrivals into India by 2025, we need to address all segments that have the potential to grow, and weddings is definitely one of them. People who come for weddings stay longer and spend more so there is a need for us to come up with a game plan on what we need to do to promote it. We need to look …