Category Archives: MOT

The e-tourist visa (eTV) has been revised to include travellers visiting India for business, conference, tourism, and medical purposes under one category, confirmed Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. “It will now be termed e-visa and will be valid for 60 days, as opposed to the earlier duration of 30 days. Travellers will also be able to apply for the e-visa four months in advance and will be granted a double-entry for tourism and business, and three entries for medical purposes,” Billa said. As per the Cabinet decision, the e-visa scheme will be extended to eight more countries, taking the total number of nations that avail the facility to 158. The liberalisation of visa services is expected to stimulate economic growth, increase earnings from export of services like tourism, medical value travel and travel on account of business and to make ‘Skill India’, ‘Digital India’, ‘Make in India’ and other such flagship initiatives of the government successful.

Karan Anand, Head (Relationship), Cox & Kings, has been nominated by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India to the National Tourism Advisory Council for a period of three years. The Council will act as a ‘Think Tank’ and advise the government on policy matters relating to tourism in the country. The committee comprises luminaries from the central government and the private sector. Anand will continue to carry out his responsibilities at Cox & Kings.

All guides with licences issued by ASI and Additional Director General, Tourism, are valid and can enter all the Centrally Protected Monuments including Fatehpur Sikri, till fresh licences are issued under the new Policy, informs Pronab Sarkar, President, IATO quoting Supreme Courts’ order on IATO’s writ petition. IATO had sought clarification on the restricted entry of Regional Level Guides and State Level Guides at Fatehpur Sikri, where only local guides were being allowed to work. This was causing financial burden on IATO members as they had to pay guide fee to their Regional/State Level Guide and the local guide.

At the behest of Adventure Travel Operators Association of India (ATOAI), Vinod Zutshi, Secretary Tourism, Government of India, announced the formation of National Task Force on Adventure Tourism for the development and promotion of adventure tourism in India. The National Task Force will be chaired by the Secretary Tourism while the team will comprise Joint Secretary Tourism as the convener, Joint Secretaries of MHA, MEA, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoEF, MOD, Ministry of Sports, Director- Indian Mountaineering Foundation, Principal- IISM, Gulmarg, Director – National Institute of Water Sports, Goa, President of ATOAI, Representative of ATOAI, secretaries of all states concerned with Adventure Tourism and Dy. Director General (Niche Tourism). The task force also aims to resolve the issues related to the segment which includes safety and security of adventure tourists, accessibility, products and promotion, among others. “Adventure travel is facing challenges on multiple fronts, across almost every region in India. Safety, accessibility, licensing and standards are the four pillars of any adventure travel destination and we have to deal with multiple ministries and offices to address these issues. The formation of the National Task Force on Adventure Travel will not only attempt to address these challenges, but at the same time, will be able to highlight our vast plethora of natural assets to international markets – which have till now been ignored,” said Akshay Kumar, President, ATOAI.  “It will allow the great geographical features of India and the adventure tourism opportunities there to become a focus for development and promotion throughout the global markets. This in turn will make the field grow tremendously in revenues, helping Indian tourism to potentially double the number of international tourist arrivals in India,” said …

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) during October, 2016 were 7.54 lakh as compared to FTAs of 6.83 lakh during October, 2015 and 6.68 lakh in October, 2014. There has been a growth of 10.4% in October, 2016 over October, 2015. FTAs during the period January-October, 2016 were 69.62 lakh with a growth of 10.5% as compared to the FTAs of 62.98 lakh with a growth of 4.5% in January- October, 2015 over January- October, 2014. The Percentage share of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during October, 2016 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (16.67%) followed by  USA (12.83%), UK (11.03%), Canada (3.73%), Australia (3.50%), Sri Lanka (3.45%),  Germany (3.38%), Russian Fed (3.20%), France (2.91%), China (2.70%), Malaysia (2.65%),  Nepal (2.16%), Japan (2.12%), Singapore (1.54%) and Thailand (1.44%). The Percentage share of  Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during October 2016 among the top 15 ports was highest at Delhi Airport (34.06%) followed by Mumbai Airport (15.69%), Haridaspur Land check post (9.22%), Chennai Airport (7.19%),  Bengaluru Airport (5.50%), Kolkata Airport (4.10%), Hyderabad Airport (3.01%),  Goa (2.90%), Cochin Airport (2.72%), Ahmadabad Airport (2.14%), Gede Rail (1.86%), Amritsar Airport (1.71%), Trivandrum Airport (1.28%), Ghojadanga land check post (1.16%) and Gaya Airport  (1.03%). Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from Tourism in India during October, 2016 were Rs. 12,303 crore as compared to Rs. 10,549 crore in October, 2015 and Rs. 10,041 crore in October, 2014.

As many as 1,05,268 foreign tourists arrived in October 2016 on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 56,477 during the month of October 2015 registering a growth of 86.4 per cent. The UK continues to be biggest market availing the services with a 22.9 per cent share, followed by USA (12.1%), France (6.6%), China (5.8%), Russian Fed (5.6%), Germany (5.5%), Australia (4.5%), Canada (3.6%), Spain (2.3%) and Netherlands (2.1%). New Delhi Airport served the most number of eTV applications with a 51.67 per cent share, followed by Mumbai Airport (18.65%), Dabolim (Goa) Airport (6.20%), Bengaluru Airport (5.18%), Chennai Airport (4.97%), Kochi Airport (3.15%), Amritsar Airport (2.42%) Hyderabad Airport (2.18%), Kolkata Airport (2.08%) and Trivandrum Airport (1.28%). During January-October 2016, a total of 7,80,570 tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 2,58,182 during January-October 2015, registering a growth of 202.3 per cent.

Union Tourism Secretary Vinod Zutshi inaugurated the Ministry of Tourism’s ‘Incredible India’ stand at the India International Trade Fair (IITF) 2016 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The Incredible India stand located at Hall No. 18 (Stand No.25) aims to nurture the tourism potential of less frequented destinations which are located closer to the popular destinations for attracting domestic visitors. Inaugurating the stand, Zutshi said, “The stand has been designed with an idea of promoting “lesser Known destinations”. Domestic tourism continues to be an important contributor to the tourism sector providing much needed resilience. There has been a continuous increase in domestic tourist visits, with the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of domestic tourist visits to all States/UTs from 1991 to 2015 being 13.63 per cent. In 2015, it grew by 11.63 per cent to reach 1431.97 million visits. And there is an encouraging sign for the Inbound Tourism too. Inbound travel to India has increased.  Foreign Tourist arrivals in India during the period January- September, 2016 were 6.2 million with a growth of 10.5% as compared to the Foreign Tourist Arrival of 5.6 million with a growth of 4.8% in January-September, 2015 over January- September, 2014. This positive development is expected to continue during remaining period of this year. The Ministry of Tourism is participating in the IITF after a long gap. The attraction of the stand are two ‘Selfie Points’ with the Taj Mahal and the Valley of Flowers as background.

Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, launched the Implementation of the Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI) in association with Ecotourism Society of India (ESOI). He recalled the MoU signed in March 2016 between ESOI and Government of India to launch the STCI programme across the country. Zutshi indicated the importance given to sustainable tourism in the National Tourism Policy that is to be released soon. Speaking on the occasion, Steve Borgia, President, ESOI, hailed the commitment shown by  Ministry of Tourism. India is one of the few countries in the world to have a criteria of its own. C.B. Ramkumar, Board member, Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC) presented the  global picture and also suggested the direction which India could go in this regard. The STCI was curated with the need for developing criteria for sustainable tourism specific to India given the environment that the tourism industry operates in.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) grew by 13.4 per cent in September 2016 over the same period last year. Bangladesh accounts for highest share of tourist arrivals followed by USA and the UK in September. Rs. 11. 781 crore foreign exchange was earned through tourism during the month. FTAs during September 2016 were 6.15 lakh as compared to FTAs of 5.42 lakh during the same period last year and 5.09 lakh in September 2014. FTAs from January-September 2016 were 62.07 lakh with a growth of 10.5% as compared to the FTAs of 56.15 lakh with a growth of 4.8 per cent in January-September, 2015 over January-September 2014. The Percentage share of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during September, 2016 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (20.58%) followed by  USA (10.96%), UK (7.97%), Malaysia (4.98%), Sri Lanka (3.98%), Australia (3.47%), China (3.36%), Germany (2.83%), Japan (2.79%), Canada (2.58%), Nepal (2.16%), France (2.15%), Singapore (2.08%), Afghanistan (1.57%) and Pakistan (1.36%). The Percentage share of  Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during September 2016 among the top 15 ports was highest at Delhi Airport (30.99%) followed by Mumbai Airport (16.28%), Haridaspur Land check post (11.62%), Chennai Airport (8.30%),  Bengaluru Airport (6.01%), Kolkata Airport (4.43%), Cochin Airport (3.22%), Hyderabad Airport (3.01%), Gede Rail (2.28%), Tiruchirapalli Airport (1.99%), Ahmadabad Airport (1.72%),Trivandrum Airport (1.49%), Ghojadanga land check post (1.29%), Amritsar Airport (1.01%) and Attari-Wagh Land check post (0.99%).

In an attempt to harness the potential and give due focus to MICE tourism, the Ministry of Tourism will soon appoint an advisory body exclusively for MICE which will be headed by the Secretary Tourism as Chairman. A task force for adventure tourism will also be constituted with Secretary Tourism as Chairman in order to take immediate steps to boost niche tourism products in India. This was informed by Vinod Zutshi, Tourism Secretary, Government of India, at the 9th Conventions India Conclave (CIC) organised by India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB). “We have decided that professional consultants will be taken on board in order to conduct proper study of the market and stakeholders of the industry and chart out a roadmap for the next 10 years which will give a proper direction and strategy in the long term and also define the roles and functions of the stakeholders in order to achieve the targeted goals.” said Zutshi. The advisory body will work in tandem with the private stakeholders, hoteliers, state governments and Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Chairman, India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB), explained that in order to make the MICE industry more competitive, GST rate for this industry has to be in the lower brackets as it is a very price sensitive market. Billa added, “The MICE industry has to lead from the front as the leisure segment alone cannot contribute to the long term goal of 2 per cent Indian share in global tourism numbers.” MoT is also working with the stakeholders in the industry to conduct the DRV Convention in September 2017, informed Zutshi.