We are pleased to announce the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with the St. Petersburg Convention Bureau. This is a step forward after we had a similar agreement with the Moscow City Tourism Corporation, where we agreed to promote Russia as a MICE-friendly destination for all of the movement coming from India. This is a bilateral movement because this understanding will promote MICE both within and outside of India. And Russia is looking for increased participation from Indian stakeholders because, given the current geopolitical situation in the world, India is Russia’s preferred source market. Similarly, as inbound tourists to our country, Russians have always been preferred. 

Arvind Singh, Secretary Tourism, said that the two side events of the first Tourism Working Group Meeting of G-20 will be focusing on rural tourism and promotion of archaeological tourism. He said, “Rural tourism has a high potential to stimulate local economic growth, social change, and inclusive community development.”  

Sandeep Dwivedi, COO at ITQ, this year has witnessed an inclusive union budget release catering nearly all aspects of travel fraternity needs, giving impetus on infrastructure improvement to capital investment and not just economic but green growth. Initiatives such as pushing tourism to border villages, 50 additional airports, 2.40 lakh crores for railway sector -9 times higher compared to FY 13-14, will foster regional connectivity in the country. A 33% hike for last 3 years in capital investment of 10 lakh crores this year on infrastructure improvement, tourist guides information, high standards food streets and security of tourists is all we expected and included in the current budget announcement. However, there is no relief provided from any rationalism to exemption on foreign exchange earnings, rather 4 times increment in TCS on outbound travel from 5% to 20% is going to affect market growth. Strategic schemes like ‘Dekho Apna Desh’, ‘One district-One product’, and ‘Panchamrit’ are not limited to domestic upliftment. In my opinion, these schemes will create greater impact at the global level having vision in the direction of clean fuel clean environment leading to zero carbon emission by 2070. Dekho Apna Desh shall promote tourism to every corner in India targeting Indian citizens and foreign tourists. In fact, sanction of additional airports and investment in infrastructure is a step towards India’s long been dream of becoming a global aviation hub. Moreover, the vision of ‘Amrit Kaal’ is a hugely welcome step towards significant growth and development of India’s technology driven and knowledge based economy.

Ministry of Tourism will organize its first Tourism Working Group meeting from 7-9 February 2023 in Rann of Kutch, Gujarat. Secretary of Tourism, Arvind Singh said that in G20, there are 5 interrelated priority areas for tourism. Accordingly, the thrust will be on these five priority areas i.e. greening of the tourism sector, harnessing the power of digitisation, empowering youth with skills, nurturing tourism MSMEs/ startups, and rethinking the strategic management of destinations. 

Arvind Singh, Secretary Tourism, has informed that they are doing an Adventure Tourism summit during G20 as a side event. “The idea behind this summit will be to bring the focus of all international operators to India and show them the products in adventure. We are planning to bring 100 overseas operators for the same and ATOAI is working on the details for the same,” he said. 

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath launched a new global gateway for the state with the inauguration of the first VFS Global Joint Visa Application Centre (JVAC) and the VFS Global Academy in Lucknow. This spacious and comfortable facility equipped with modern amenities and services will have the capacity of processing approximately 1.2 lakh applications a year and will be of immense benefit to the citizens of Uttar Pradesh, who till now had to travel to other cities like New Delhi to submit their visa applications. 

Riaz Munshi, President, OTOAI, has said that the TCS being increased to 20% will hamper our business and at the same time there is going to be a huge deficiency in government revenue as people would prefer to either book through foreign tour operators or foreign OTAs to save GST and TCS both. “At present as well, outbound tour operators and government of India is losing revenue on the same grounds,” he added. 

The Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) in collaboration with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) organized a six-day Disaster Management Course from 30th January 2022 to 4th February 2023 at 8 Battalion, NDRF, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh for adventure guides. The adventure guides from across the country successfully completed the 6-day course on Disaster Management, Search & Rescue, First Aid & CPR, Fire Safety, Water Emergencies, Snake & Animal Bites, Group Exercises / Leadership, communication skills and related topics. The adventure guides were awarded certificates on completion of the course by Commandant Praveen Kumar Tiwary, Commandant 8th Battalion NDRF. The adventure guides were also made honorary wardens for keeping ‘the great outdoors’ pristine and to ensure that ATOAI safety guidelines are followed in letter and spirit. Commandant Praveen Kumar Tiwary says “NDRF is known for its professional acumen in the field of disaster response and rescue operations. This course is going to be a force multiplier for the participants. The people associated with adventure sports are passionate and having tremendous set of skills. This course is certainly going to help them in their future endeavours. The training imparted in this course will enable them to respond effectively in trying times”. Speaking to the adventure guides at NDRF Mr. Ajeet Bajaj, President, ATOAI said “ATOAI has always endeavoured to be a ‘Force for Good’ for our country and tried to pitch in during natural disasters. This is the value system ATOAI stands for and these training sessions will enable adventure guides who are trained professionals and spread across the country, to be force multipliers for rescue and support during natural disasters. This will also up-skill adventure professionals/ guides in providing …

Shilendran M, Vice President-Sales, CGH Earth said, “We don’t have a presence in the north at present, we are currently confined to South India. We have our hotels in Kerala, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, but we are exploring possibilities of coming to the North India, for which discussions are going on.”  

As per the order issued by general administration department (GAD), Jammu and Kashmir government is all set to outsource assets of tourism department and has set up a panel to decide the mechanism of executing the plan in a phased manner.