Category Archives: MOT

Rakesh Verma, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, has shared that the MOT has participated in WTM London and now they are planning to participate in Fitur and ITB Berlin. “In both the events, we will participate along with the industry and the states,” he added.

According to an official order, those Canadian passport-holders who wish to visit India for tourism, business, medical or conference purposes, may apply for eVisa at https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html and follow instructions contained therein. Canadian passport-holders seeking to travel to India for any purpose, not qualifying for eVisa, may apply for paper visa at https://www.bisindia-canada.com/. The same process is applicable to Laissez-passer travel document holders. Those who have applied for visa through various BLS Centres in Canada are advised to wait for issuance of the same. All such applications will be processed on priority. Those applicants who wish to withdraw their respective visa applications may do so by visiting the website https://www.bisindia-canada.com/ and choosing the option for Application Withdrawal’. Those who have booked appointments to apply for tourist, business, medical or conference visa at BLS Centres in Canada and would, now, like to apply for eVisa instead, are requested to vacate/cancel their appointment siots so that the same becomes available to others seeking visa/consular services.

Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh, has revealed, that usually one crore tourist used to come in a year in Varanasi, but this year, the destination received one crore tourists in one single month during monsoon.”

According to an official order, Ministry of Tourism has decided to wind up all the overseas India Tourism offices before 31 March 2023. In line with this, all the officers posted in the ITOs overseas have been requested to take necessary action and submit an action taken report.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, has said that inbound tourism is projected to recover faster in 2023. “There is a strong interest of the hospitality industry to invest in the North-East and Southern islands which is an encouraging sign,” he said.

In a reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of Tourism, shared that domestic tourist visits in India fell from 2.32 billion in 2019, to 677 million in 2021, owing to the impact of the pandemic.

Rakesh Verma, Additional Secretary, Tourism, has said that the tour operators are the most significant members of the value chain. “They interface with the customer & the markets and the role is going to get increased. They are the ones who get impacted by the changes in the industry,” he added.

Rakesh Verma, Additional Secretary, Tourism, has said that IATO has organized some great sessions and there will be brainstorming on various issues on how industry can accelerate growth and how both government and industry can work together. “I think this will be a very meaningful convention with lot of ideas to benefit the sector,” he added.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, in his address at the convention, said, “Domestic tourism has revived and is significantly above pre-COVID levels. “As the theme is ‘Inbound tourism – What Lies Ahead’, I hope this convention contributes to raising the bar for inbound tourism and everyone would workout strategies for faster recovery,” he added.

The parliamentary standing committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, in its 331st report said that with the increased competition among various countries to attract more foreign visitors, it is an imperative need for India to prepare a better marketing strategy by hiring marketing experts to attract foreign visitors.