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. 

Harmandeep Singh Anand, MD, GPS, has revealed that in 2023 GPS will be held in person across 13 cities covering all major Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities. It will be held in Kolkata (19-20 Jan), Bhubaneswar (24-25 Jan), Nagpur (13-14 Feb), Lucknow (20-21 Feb), Chandigarh (28 Feb-1 Mar), Pune (24-25Mar), Ahmedabad, Kochi, Visakhapatnam, Indore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Guwahati. “We expect attendance of over 10000 travel professionals from more than 800 towns and cities of India. In addition, value add Registered Exhibitors will have the opportunity to stay connected year-round with all attended and registered buyers through the GPS-CONNECT Hybrid platform virtually as well,” he said.

Akasa Air, India’s youngest airline, today introduced its in-flight safety manual in Braille for persons with visual impairments. In keeping with the airline’s core value of empathy and ensuring that each of our customers have a warm and consistent experience, the Braille in-flight safety manual provides an explanation of the safety instructions, in English and Hindi. Akasa Air has partnered with The Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC) to develop this Braille in-flight safety manual. The Braille in-flight safety manual provided to passengers onboard upon request, covers detailed instructions on seatbelt operation, location of emergency exits and life jackets, tactile diagrams that help orient passengers to aircraft and aircraft positions and other essential safety information. Commenting on the launch, Belson Coutinho, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing & Experience Officer, Akasa Air, said, “We are committed to being socially cohesive with a focus on being dependable, warm, efficient, and reliable and our Braille in-flight safety manual is a testimony to this commitment. We are extremely grateful to Dr. Sam Taraporevala and the entire team at XRCVC for their guidance and constant support in our endeavour towards inclusive travel.” Dr. Sam Taraporevala, Executive Director, XRCVC who helped develop the manual, said “The Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC), a department of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai (www.xrcvc.org), is a national level support and advocacy centre for persons with disabilities. XRCVC was set up in 2003 as an Assistive Technology support centre for students with visual impairment in higher education. Akasa Air’s Braille in-flight safety manual is an example of an airline taking a step towards social inclusion.”