Category Archives: MOT

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, said that India plans to develop 50 new tourism destinations across the country and envisages making 59 new air routes operational to boost tourism in the country. “We plan to promote Green Tourism and open 50 new tourism destinations and launch publicity in the overseas market,” he said.

Minister of Culture, Tourism & DoNER, G Kishan Reddy, has said that India needs private investments in a big way to develop tourism. Referring to the first Global Tourism Investor’s Summit to be held in May, he said, “We have asked the states to present their required investments for tourism development in their areas. The aim is to promote our tourism industry as an investment destination.”

According to the government’s provisional estimates, the foreign exchange earnings from tourism in the country increased by 107% from ₹65,070 crore in 2021 to ₹1,34,543 crore in 2022. Latest data from the Bureau of Immigration show that India received 6.19 million FTAs during 2022 as compared to 1.52 million during the same period of 2021.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, will be superannuating on 31 May, 2023 and the position will be taken up by V. Vidyavathi, lAS, who is currently serving as Director General, Archaeological Survey of India, Ministry of Culture. She has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty, Ministry of Tourism in the rank. Vidyavathi is an IAS officer of Karnataka Cadre, 1991 batch and joined as DG-ASI in May 2020.

Manisha Saxena, DG, Tourism, has said that digital presentation of strengths is very important as a destination and a lot of states have done some good work on it. “Almost everyone has a website and a tourism app. However, challenge of digitalization is how to combine all of it with the places where all the action is,” he said.

Manisha Saxena, Director General, Tourism said, “Word of mouth publicity and international showcasing, as part of the G20 Presidency events, will go a long way in promoting tourism as a whole and we need to take this opportunity to also learn from international experience and see what we can do better to leverage this as our strength.” 

The Ministry of Tourism has decided to transfer all matters of registration, recognition and complaints of tour operators and other tourism service providers from the Travel Trade (TT) division to Quality & Standard (Q&S) Division of the Ministry of Tourism. Accordingly, henceforth all the queries/complaints in respect of recognition, approval, etc. may be directly taken up with the Q&S Division of the Ministry of Tourism.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, has said that the 2nd Tourism Working Group meeting held in Siliguri & Darjeeling from 1-4 April was a huge success. Speaking on the response, he said, “Green tourism was considered as the number one priority by all countries participating in the TWG meeting.”

Manisha Saxena, DG, Ministry of Tourism, has said that as part of her new role in the central ministry, her focus would be to facilitate the tourism sector in as many ways as possible as part of Ministry of Tourism’s overall policy. “I want to be the part of the team which deliver tourism as one of the foremost economic activities in India,” she said.

Rakesh Verma, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, has said that MOT is stepping up efforts to promote India as a M!CE destination. “We are taking up all 55 destinations where G20 meetings are being held as places to be promoted. We will be launching a major M!CE campaign in digital marketing space so that people come to know about it,” he said. E