Category Archives: MOT

Kamala Vardhan Rao, IAS, C&MD, ITDC, has said that India has tremendous potential for medical value tourism. Speaking at a webinar for Tourism Collaboration between India and Saudi Arabia, he added, “India holds 10th position globally as far as Medical Value Tourism is concerned, due to affordability, accessibility, and availability of medical facilities. It is the 7th dominating country in the world and 3rd in Asia Pacific region in terms of wellness tourism. India has received 4.95 lakh medical tourist in 2017 which has gone up to over 7 lakhs in 2019. With 800 NABH and 36 JCI accredited hospitals, India is a viable destination for medical facilities due to a robust ecosystem which is already well developed. Medical Value Tourism (MVT) is one of the 10 champion sectors identified by the Government of India, and we are perhaps the only country in the world with a dedicated Ministry of alternate healing and traditional medicine, the Ministry of AYUSH, which promotes Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy medicine. Ayurveda is taking off in a very big way world-wide, with its proven efficacy in the post-COVID recovery phase.”

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, has said that while the strategy for international marketing in terms of incentives, promotions and media campaigns will be similar, but it will change from 15th August, when we enter 75th year of Independence. “We’ll merge that kind of messaging or campaigns, which will be aimed at celebrating 75th year of India’s independence, with existing media strategies, as well as new schemes and programmes,” he said.

Commenting on tourists flocking different domestic destinations and raising concerns of COVID and over-tourism, G Kishan Reddy, Cabinet Minister, Tourism & Culture, said, “While the state governments are responsible to control the spread, and they have been given advisories to follow COVID protocols, but COVID spread cannot be controlled without the cooperation of the people and tourists. Of course, the Central Government, State Governments, district and local administrations are working on it, but people’ cooperation is needed to make it happen.”

Ajay Bhatt, the newly appointed Minister of State, Tourism, took charge and shared that the priorities for him in the new role is to take the country forward and tourism sector at the top position. “We will take briefing and will come to know things clearly. Then, we would know what can be done about the issues and problems. The hotel industry is completely closed and small shops around tourist sites have been out of jobs, this include locals, rickshaws, taxis, guides, daily wagers, etc. All of them have faced problems. For them, the Government has created many schemes. Now that the situation is improving day by day, we hope to soon come back to the old level of tourism in India,” he said.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, has said that the national strategy and roadmap for sustainable tourism would involve a certification scheme, which would initially cover accommodations and tour operators based on sustainability criteria of India, which can later be extended to destinations and other industry stakeholders as well. “We will also work with industry, states and NGOs on information education and communication campaigns amongst the stakeholders about sustainable tourism and also the adverse environmental impact of tourism in certain parts of the country. There will also be an effort to do a state assessment and ranking, which we have seen to be successful in certain aspects of national priorities. This will be a key strategy to motivate states to adopt sustainability in tourism and it will be used to identify the status of various initiatives in the states and build their capacity and future roadmap towards better sustainable practice tourism,” he added.

Rakesh Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism has said that the ministry will launch a responsible traveller campaign on the upcoming World Tourism Day 2021. “This World Tourism Day, we would be formally launching the responsible traveller campaign. I would like to request state governments to also support the campaign and make it a great success,” he said.

To strengthen the hospitality & tourism industry, the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Yatra. The primary objective of this MoU is to provide extensive visibility to accommodation units, which have self-certified themselves on SAATHI on the OTA platform.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in the Second Modi Cabinet, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Member of Parliament from New Delhi Parliamentary constituency, Meenakshi Lekhi have been made the new Minister of State for Culture post the latest cabinet reshuffle by the PM Narendra Modi when 43 new ministers took the oath. Member of Parliament from Bikaner, Meghwal formerly served as Chief Whip and Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. Lekhi is also a lawyer in the Supreme Court of India.

Shripad Yesso Naik and Ajay Bhatt have been made the new Minister of State for Tourism post the latest cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Both the new ministers will work under the Minister of Tourism, G Kishan Reddy who has been given charge of MOT apart from the Ministry of Culture.

G Kishan Reddy has become the new Minister of Tourism and Minister of Culture. He takes over from Prahlad Singh Patel, who took over office on 30th May 2019. He has also been made the Minister of Development of the North Eastern Region. MOT also gets a Minister of State with Shripad Yesso Naik being appointed as the new Minister of State for Tourism the news came after a cabinet reshuffle was announced by Prime Minister Modi.