Category Archives: MOT

Thanking the govt to offer foreign tourists GST refund for local shopping, FHRAI has proposed to extend this to all shopping. Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, FHRAI, says, “The government is considering piloting the system to offer GST refund on purchases made by foreigners at only Cottage Industries Emporium. This is a welcome move and we request that the benefit be extended to all purchases that they make in the country.”

The government is working on mission mode to foster air, road, train and political connectivity in the North East region. Union Ministrer G Kishan Reddy said, “In the North East more than 80,000 cr has been spent on road connectivity, and 1190 km of railway track projects are underway. In the coming four years, the government plans to establish 100 more airports, and seaplane networks and increase airways connectivity to hilly regions.”

Kishan Reddy, Minister of Tourism & Culture has informed that to harness the potential of Cruise Tourism in the country, a Task Force has been constituted with Secretary (Tourism) as the Chairman and Secretary (Shipping) as the Co-chairman.

Parliamentary Committee on Tourism has recommended the Ministry of Tourism that a Visa guidance Helpdesk should be present at all the Overseas Tourist Offices as well as the Indian Missions for effective guidance of tourists, as visa rules change from time to time.

Ministry of tourism in its latest statistics have revealed that Indian Nationals Departures (INDs) from India in May 2022 were 1,902,565 as compared to 154,873 in May 2021 and 2,384,815 in May 2019 registering a growth of 1100 per cent and -20 per cent respectively.

The Parliamentary Committee has advised the MOT that there is a huge potential for India to realize and aggressively advance towards attracting medical tourists from other parts of the world, including Europe and America. “India receives most of its medical tourists from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Oman, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nigeria, Kenya and Iraq,” it said in its report.

Ministry of Tourism in its recent statistics revealed that the percentage share of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during January-May 2022 among the top 15 ports was highest at Delhi Airport (35.50%) followed by Mumbai Airport (14.58%), Haridaspur Land Check Post (12.27%), Chennai Airport (10.30%) ,Bengaluru Airport (7.55%), Hyderabad Airport (6.09%), Cochin Airport (4.96%), Kolkata Airport (4.22%), Ahmedabad Airport (2.43%), Agartala Airport (1.92%), Trivandrum Airport (1.61%), Ghojadanga Airport (1.46%), Tiruchirappalli Airport (1.16%), Changrabandha LandCheckpost (1.15%) and Amritsar Airport (0.92%).

The development of rural clusters was taken up under Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM), revealed G Kishan Reddy, Minister of Tourism & Culture. A total of 103 clusters covering 32 states/UTs including Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have been approved for an investment of Rs. 492.31 crore – both under the CGF and Convergence under Tourism Promotion.

Eight craft villages have been taken under the ‘Linking Textile with Tourism’ programme, benefitting around 1,000 artisans to promote craft and tourism at a single location, said Ministry of Textiles. Under the programme, major tourist places are being linked with handicraft clusters and infrastructure supports combined with soft interventions.

Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned financial assistance of around Rs. 631 Crore to States/UTs for infrastructure development under Coastal Circuit theme of Swadesh Darshan Scheme, announced G Kishan Reddy, Minister of Tourism, Culture & DoNER, in a written reply in Lok Sabha