Category Archives: MOT

Promoting tourism awareness and social history, the Ministry of Tourism has launched its ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ webinar series to provide information on the many destinations of the country and share the sheer depth and expanse of the culture and heritage of our Incredible India. The first webinar, which was part of a series that shall unfold, touched upon the long history of Delhi as it has unfolded as 8 cities, each unique in its character and leaving behind traces which makes Delhi the magnificent city that it is today. The seminar was titled ” City of Cities- Delhi’s Personal Diary’. The next webinar is on the 16th of April from 11 am to 12 noon and based on the amazing city of Kolkata. The core of the session-based itself on tourism awareness and social history. Laced with interesting anecdotes the session which was conducted by the India city walks for Ministry of Tourism, had enthusiastic participation with 5546 persons registering and many interesting questions were raised which depict the interest of the participants. The webinar shall be available in public domain soon and so if you missed it then do see it on the official links of the Ministry’s social media handles- IncredibleIndia on Instagram and Facebook. Rupinder Brar, ADG, MOT mentioned that the series of webinars shall be an on-going feature and the Ministry would work towards showcasing Incredible India. She requested that stakeholders should work with MOT to build positive messaging for the promotion of domestic tourism so that people are encouraged to travel as soon as the country has COVID 19 behind it.

Rupinder Brar, ADG, Tourism, has said that MOTs marketing and promotional campaigns have to be re-aligned according to the markets that could come out of the impact of COVID-19 earlier and have the disposable incomes to travel again. While speaking at the first TravTalk Digital Conclave, she said. “We would need to re-align our promotions and marketing campaigns in the light of the situation worldwide and we are still in the middle of this crisis. Quarter 2 would require us to now sit down on the drawing board and really work and re-align some of our marketing plans. Even regarding the Global Media Plan that we worked out in November-December this year, we need to be expanding our footprint. We have started our campaigns in Latam and we have identified some countries from Africa where the campaign will be followed. We need to work on the metrics of the impact of COVID in different countries to identify markets, and also see in those countries what kind of disposable income and what is the age bracket will be open to travel. Accordingly we need to picture the marketing plans for those countries.”

The StrandedinIndia portal of the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) continues to provide support to the tourists. Until 9th April, the number of tourists who have been assisted are 1194. In addition, the regular toll-free helpline 1363 which the MOT runs has had 779 calls from 22nd March to 9th April. Besides this, the Ministry officials are working round the clock with the tourism and hospitality industry to understand the immediate and long term issues that are coming up as an impact of COVID-19.  

During the TravTalk Digital Conclave, Suman Billa, Director, Technical Cooperation & Silk Road Development, UNWTO said that it may take almost 7 years for tourism to scale back growth achieved in recent years. According to him, the global tourism demand will not be the same again post-COVID-19 crisis is over. “COVID-19 may cost tourism seven years of growth – that’s seven years of lost jobs and lost opportunities. UNWTO’s recommendations for recovery urge governments to act decisively to protect jobs, protect companies and include tourism in all recovery plans,” the former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. In its analysis estimating the global impact, UNWTO predicted a loss of 290-400 million international tourist arrivals globally. 

The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) held a virtual conference with the tourism and hospitality sector associations of the industry recently, which was led by Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary Tourism, MOT, along with senior officials of the Ministry. The Associations represented through remote conferencing were FAITH, CII, FICCI, PHDCCI and IMAI. The industry put forth a number of ideas and suggestions for tiding over the crisis created by COVID-19 in the sector of tourism and hospitality. The Ministry on its part shared the concerns and assured the associations that the government is very much with them in this grim hour and that they would work towards the suggestions put forth. There would be a lot of thrust on promoting domestic tourism was a common takeaway. MOT is using its social handles to create awareness of the need to stay at home safe in the period of lockdown and prepare to travel once the world opens up. In the meantime, the course modules of the Institutes of Hotel Management are being held online and faculty and students are using technology to remain abreast with their course curriculum.

India Tourism Development Corporation will provide up to 2000 cooked and packed meals every day during the lock down for the health workers of government hospitals (AIIMS & RML) in the state capital as well as to other needy people through local administration. Commenting on this initiative, Prahlad Singh Patel, Tourism Minister, says, “ITDC will continue to work with all the stake holders to aid the community at large. These are testing times which all of us are going through. The Government has been doing an exceptional job and we stand in solidarity with them to overcome the pandemic which is impacting millions of lives and countries across the globe.  As Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls for the nation to work hand in hand, ITDC in a humble move will provide upto 2000 meals per day to the healthcare professionals and other needy people as part of CSR activity. Everything we do today combats the massive challenge that we are facing as a nation and as a world.”

Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, with an aim to extend support to the foreign tourists who are stranded in our country because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has set up a portal to disseminate information regarding the services that can be availed by them. The portal is titled ‘Stranded in India’. And it is also hosted on Incredible India website also. The portal will help tourists get information/details of State Tourism departments and Regional offices of Ministry of tourism to help you to stay safe and healthy while in India. It will also help you find information on ways of getting back to your home country. Please visit strandedinindia.com or incredibleindia.org for further details.

Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, has revealed that they have put forth the industry representation and requests in front of the Finance Minister, so that they can work towards reducing the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on businesses. “The industry stakeholders need working capital and they are looking at interventions either from the banking sector in easing out of norms, or they will be looking at support through reduction of taxes. These are the things that would leave money in the hands of the industry as of now. We would be carrying out or taking with us the representation of the industry and the thrust would be that the industry needs to survive so that job losses do not happen. I would refer to the honourable PM’s speech to the nation, where he has himself mentioned that we should make sure that we don’t stop wages of anyone. Hence, all the efforts of the Ministry of Finance would be to ensure that no such job losses happen in the tourism and hospitality sectors.”

The meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture was held in New Delhi. The meeting was led by its Chairman the Minister of State ( IC) for Tourism and Culture, Prahlad Singh Patel. The agenda of the meeting was “ Promotion / Development of rural Tourism and home stays and Improvement in Global Benchmarking of tourism sector”. The Ministry of Culture focused on various cultural activities like fairs and festivals. The Members of the committee gave innovative suggestions on promotion of tourism and culture for Incredible India. The Minister highlighted on the need to convene at regular intervals and he also highlighted on the need to give specific suggestions on aspects of roads development so that the diverse parts of India can be accessed by all to appreciate the immense potential of India’s art, heritage, culture and natural sites.

The Indian government has announced the suspension of all regular visas to India in view of rapid surge of COVID-19 cases in the country. In an order, the Health Ministry said all existing visas except diplomatic, official, UN/International organisations, employment and project visa are suspended till 15th April 2020. This will come into effect from 1200 GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure. Any foreign national who intends to travel to India for compelling reason may contact the nearest Indian mission, visa-free travel facility granted to OCI cardholders is also kept in abeyance till 15th April,” read a communique, issued after a meeting of a Group of Ministers. All incoming travellers, including Indian nationals, arriving from or having visited China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany after 15th February 2020 shall be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days. Incoming travellers, including Indian nationals, are advised to avoid non-essential travel and are informed that they can be quarantined for a minimum of 14 days on their arrival in India. The notification also strongly advised Indian nationals to avoid all non-essential travel abroad. Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic.