Category Archives: MOT

The Ministry of Tourism will host the Grand Finale of “Smart India Hackathon” on April 1-2, 2017, in Kochi, Kerala, featuring 53 teams comprising of 230 students from technology institution/engineering colleges across the country. The Smart India Hackathon is being held across 26 cities in the country including Kochi with the involvement and support of 29 government departments. This Hackathon is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resources Development organised in collaboration with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and i4c and is aimed to help institutionalise the model of harnessing the creativity and technical expertise of youth in technical institutions. The Hackathon for Tourism sector, to be held at the Mar Baselios Institute of Technology and Science [MBITS], Kothmangalam, Cochin, will focus on the use of technology to solve problem statements pertaining to Tourism Sector posed by Ministry of Tourism such as Safety & Security of Tourist, Path breaking technological solutions that would catapult India as a leading tourist destination, Museum Commentary etc. The problem statements pertaining to tourism sector were given directly by the Ministry of Tourism based on the industry requirements which will be used to challenge the students for developing innovative digital solutions. The newly developed solutions/technical products will be evaluated by experts and prizes shall be distributed for winners, 1st runner up and 2nd runner up. After the event, the Ministry of Tourism will prepare a plan of action for integrating the products/software which has come out this hackathon into the Departmental functioning.

As many as 201,333 foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in India on Medical Visa were recorded in 2016, while there were 1,34,344 FTAs in 2015 and 75,688 FTAs in 2014. This information was given by Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture (Independent Charge) in a written reply in Rajya Sabha. In order to simplify and speed up the procedure of obtaining Visa for tourists coming to India for medical purposes, the Government of India has extended the facility of e-Medical Visa. Other measures taken by the Government to facilitate the tourists coming through e- Medical Visa are: Extension of duration of stay for upto 6 months may be granted on case to case basis on merits of each case by the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO)/Foreigners Registration Officer (FRO) concerned. Triple entry will be permitted as against single entry earlier. In case of emergency, if Medical Visa is recommended by an accredited hospital in India, Indian Missions/Posts abroad should decide on such request within 48 hours of getting the application.

The e-visa facility for film enthusiasts has now been principally approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The visa can now be availed under the category of film tourism. This was informed by Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. He further added that the procedure of availing this facility will be similar to those for eTV for business and medical tourism. On the need to increase accommodation facilities in the country, Billa said, “The last time we counted, we are short of almost 200,000 hotel rooms in India and this gap has to be filled at a faster rate than the time it takes to build these properties. I believe homestays can play a big role in this aspect and alternative accommodations like OYO Rooms, Airbnb etc., can also fill the gap. A regulatory framework will be introduced by the Ministry of Tourism to uphold acceptable standards and quality of service and open lucrative accommodation choices for the travellers. We will accredit these accommodations as per the standards required.”

The number of Foreign Tourist Arrivals in February 2017 was 9.56 lakh as compared to FTAs of 8.47 lakh in February, 2016 registering a growth rate of 13.0 per cent in comparison to the previous year. The highest arrival numbers were from Bangladesh (17.46%) followed by UK (12.20%), USA (11.83%), Russian Fed. (4.29%) and Canada (4.26%). Delhi Airport received the most number of FTAs (31.86%) followed by Mumbai Airport (16.10%), Haridaspur Land checkpost (9.44%), Chennai Airport (6.72%) and Goa Airport (5.58%). FTAs during the period January- February 2017 were 19.40 lakh with a growth of 14.7 per cent, as compared to the FTAs of 16.91 lakh in January- February 2016.

According to statistics revealed by Ministry of Tourism, a double digit growth rate of 16.5% in Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) has been witnessed correspondingly in the month of January 2017 over January 2016. This was much higher than the growth rate of 6.8% in Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) observed in January 2016 over January 2015.

N. K. Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, has been given the assignment of additional charge of the post of Secretary, Ministry of Tourism with immediate effect and until further orders. He is an IAS officer of Bihar cadre, 1980 batch. This announcement came after the superannuation of former Secretary-Tourism, Vinod Zutshi.

Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) through tourism during the month of January 2017 was recorded at Rs.16,097 crore as compared to Rs.13,669 crore in January 2016 and Rs.12,100 crore in January 2015. The growth rate in FEEs (in rupees) during January 2017 over January 2016 was 17.8 per cent as compared to the growth rate of 13.0 per cent in January 2016 over January 2015. This data was provided by Ministry of Tourism based on the credit data of travel head as available from Balance of Payments of RBI for the previous year.

Domestic tourist visits (DTVs) to states/UTs was 1,653 million in 2016 as compared to 1,432 million in 2015 corresponding to a growth of 15.5 per cent. The contribution of the top 10 states/UTs during 2016 stood at approximately 84.2 per cent to the total number of DTVs as against 83.62 per cent recorded in 2015. The top 10 states in terms of highest number of DTVs (in millions) received during 2016 were Tamil Nadu (344.3), Uttar Pradesh (229.6), Madhya Pradesh (184.7), Andhra Pradesh (158.5), Karnataka (129.8), Maharashtra (115.4), West Bengal (74.5), Telangana (71.5), Gujarat (42.8) and Rajasthan (41.5).

According to the Ministry of Tourism, in January 2017, a total of 9.83 lakh foreign tourist arrivals were recorded in India as compared to FTAs of 8.44 lakh in January, 2016 and 7.91 lakh in January, 2015. The growth rate in FTAs in January, 2017 over January, 2016 is 16.5 per cent as compared to 6.8 per cent in January, 2016 over January, 2015. MoT also informed that a total of 1.52 lakh foreign tourists arrived on e-Visa to India in January, 2017 as compared to 0.88 lakh during the month of January 2016 registering a growth of 72.0 per cent. The share of tourists availing e-Visa facility in January 2017 reached 15.5 per cent as against 10.4 per cent in January 2016. The percentage share of FTAs among the top 15 source countries was the highest from USA (15.01%) followed by Bangladesh (14.91%), UK (11.11%), Canada (4.63%), Russian Fed. (4.46%), Australia (3.65%), Malaysia (3.15%), Germany (2.92%), France (2.89%) and China (2.54%), Sri Lanka (2.45%), Japan(2.15%),Afghanistan (1.84%), Rep. of Korea (1.61%) and Nepal (1.60%). The percentage share of FTAs among the top 15 ports was the highest at Delhi Airport (28.30%) followed by Mumbai Airport (18.23%), Haridaspur Land checkpost (8.17%), Chennai Airport (7.32%), Goa Airport (6.51%), Bengaluru Airport (5.32%), Kolkata Airport (4.32%), Cochin Airport (3.73%), Ahmedabad Airport (3.37%), Hyderabad Airport (2.74%), Gede Rail Land checkpost (1.77%), Trivandrum (1.62%), Trichy Airport (1.38%), Ghojadanga land checkpost (1.08%) and Amritsar Airport (1.02%). The percentage share of top 15 source countries availing e-Visa facilities during January, 2017 was highest from UK (22.9%), followed by USA (13.6%), Russian Fed (8.3%), China (6.3%), France (5.6%), Australia (4.4%), Germany (4.1%), Canada (3.6%), Korea (Rep.of) (3.2%) and Ukraine …

Welcome kits with preloaded SIM cards have been launched by Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Tourism & Culture, Govt. of India, in collaboration with BSNL and Telco for the benefit of foreign tourists visiting the country. He announced, “We are glad to be launching this initiative and hope it is a success. Our aim is to make the tourists’ stay in India a good one and their safety and security is our utmost concern. Hence, the sim cards have been preloaded with about Rs. 50 talktime and 50mb data so that they can connect with their loved ones after landing in India.” The kit is currently available at T3, Indira Gandhi International Airport and will subsequently be rolled out to 15 other airports where e-visa facility is accepted. Tourists can avail the free sim card from the Bureau of Immigration at the airport after filling out an information form.