Category Archives: MOT

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism and Culture, Government of India, has said that they are thinking of declaring 2021 as Visit India Year, with an aim to invite people across the world to the country and showcase its diversity. “We want people across the world to know India and see its cultural heritage and its attractions. In order to showcase that we are in discussion to declare 2021 as Visit India Year. We want to make the new multilingual website and language facilities at important tourist sites, act as facilities to attract tourists from different countries across the world,” he announced at the launch of the multilingual Incredible India website in New Delhi.

The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) has launched the multilingual website of Incredible India during an event in Delhi. The website which is currently hosted in English and Hindi has been revamped with a new design to provide more information about India’s tourist destinations, attractions, experiences and providing support in Chinese, Arabic and Spanish languages. Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (I/C) unveiled the new website at The Ashok Hotel, New Delhi in presence of key stakeholders of the Indian tourism industry. Incredible India website (www.incredibleindia.org) is a promotional website of MOT for projecting India as a ‘must-visit’ destination across the globe. Incredible India 2.0 website aims towards showcasing the varied tourism products of India at a global arena by providing visitors with relevant, personalized and contextual digital experience escalating tourism awareness, attraction and opportunities.

Rakesh Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary, MOT, will be travelling for ITB Berlin 2020 with a delegation of around 49 exhibitors, which will be led by Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism and Culture. The format has been changed this time for ITB Berlin, as there will not be a presentation and press conference, but a panel discussion instead. “We will be having a breakfast meeting with the German FTOs in Berlin. We have a panel discussion on the first day, which will focus on global trends in tourism focusing on Incredible India and will be moderated by a CNN journalist. It will have around 5 panelists including German tour operators who will be talking about India and their experience. While there will not be a specific campaign for ITB Berlin, we will project the efforts we are taking and the whole range of offerings we have been developing at MOT. Apart from that we have small group engagements and one-to-one engagements at the VIP lounge at India Pavilion of ITB. We are trying to project India as an experiential and transformational destination for the travellers, which is one of the key messages that we are putting across,” he shares. “The Ministerial delegation would consist of 49 co-exhibitors, including state governments, tour operators, hotels, wellness centres, as well as Ayurveda society. We’ve taken a huge space of 705 sq. m. CMD, ITDC, will also be there. It will be a combined marketing effort by the Government and the stakeholders,” reveals Verma.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in January 2020 were 11,18,150 as compared to 11,03,380 in January 2019 registering a growth of 1.3%. 2019 registering a growth of 1.3%. The percentage share of Foreign Tourist Arrivals in India during January 2020 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (18.68%) followed by USA (15.34%), UK (9.68%), Canada (4.51%), Australia (4.01%), Russian Fed (3.75%), Malaysia (2.89%), China (2.86%), France (2.54%), Germany (2.37%), Sri Lanka (2.24%), Japan (2.06%), Thailand (1.52%), Rep. of Korea (1.47%) and Nepal (1.41%).

Meenakshi Sharma, Director General, Ministry of Tourism, has said that they are very happy about the budget announcement, and will be using the same for developing infrastructure for iconic sites and other existing schemes by the MOT, apart from global promotions.  She says, “We are getting a budget of around Rs. 2500 crores and we have sufficient funds to go on with our existing schemes. We also look forward to develop the iconic sites, for which we will use more funds. For the iconic sites, our responsibility is to create major infrastructure. Hence, the focus will be on iconic sites, Swadesh Darshan, and Prasad schemes. OF course, the global promotions always remains an important thing. The Incredible India 2.0 scheme has panned out very well. We will be continuing with our theme. For domestic promotions—Dekho Apna Desh, the Prime Minister has already urged all Indian to visit Indian destinations before going anywhere else. This is something we are also going to talk about in our domestic promotions.”

Inaugurating development projects worth over Rs 1,200 crore in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his government is giving top priority to roads, highways, waterways and railways, especially in terms of infrastructure. “Today when we talk about $5 trillion economy in India, tourism is an integral part of it. Besides nature, heritage tourism has a strong role to play in achieving the goal. Also, along with Varanasi other holy sites are being developed using new technologies,” he said. Developing major spots of faith and spirituality around the country, the government is working to make them accessible and convenient for pilgrims and tourists. For which, I have flagged off the Kashi-Mahakal Express to connect Varanasi with Onkareshwar and Mahakaleshwar,” PM Modi further said.

India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), has signed an MoU with Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited for development of heritage sites in the state. As part of the MoU, ITDC would provide consultancy services for innovative/ decorative lighting and illumination of important monuments and sound and light show at other important places in Gujarat. The MoU was signed by G Kamala Vardhana Rao, CMD, ITDC and Jenu Devan, Commissioner of Tourism and Managing Director, Tourism Corporation of Gujarat in the presence of Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State, Tourism, and Vijay Rupani, Chief Minister, Gujarat. Speaking at inaugural session, Prahlad Singh Patel said, “There is a great scope for developing tourism in Gujarat for which the state government has developed many more new focused sights to attract tourism. State Government may work in tandem with ITDC to promote and develop tourism through innovative and creative steps.”

The Ministry of Culture has developed three virtual experiential museums at Man Mahal in Varanasi, Ajanta Caves at National Museum, Delhi and Humayun Tomb in Delhi informed Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C) of Culture and Tourism. Two more such museums are under development. The Ministry has also proposed to set up a National Virtual Experiential Site Museum at Vadnagar, Gujarat. In 2016, the Ministry of Culture was given the task of establishing Virtual Museums in at least 50 locations.

Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) has identified 180 tourist sites for organizing Swachhta Action Plan (SAP) activities during the year 2019-20 to create Swachhta Awareness amongst the tourists, students of schools/colleges and stakeholders across the country. Besides, Swachhta Pakhwada and Swachhta-Hi-Seva activities have also been undertaken by MOT at several locations across the country. Facilities like drinking water, toilet, interpretation centre, wi-fi, illumination, ramps, pathways, publication sale counter etc. are provided at the World Heritage and Ticketed monuments. Further, existing facilities are upgraded as per requirement and its up-gradation is a continuous process.

In order to provide an impetus to tourism, the Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned seven projects worth Rs 594 crore in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh under the Swadesh Darshan and PRASHAD scheme for development of tourism infrastructure. The schemes provide financial assistance to state governments / UT administrations. With a total sanction of Rs 594 crore, six projects are for Swadesh Darshan scheme for the development of the Himalayan circuit while one project worth Rs 42.02 crore for development of Hazratbal is for the PRASAD scheme. The allocation under Swadesh scheme is for the integrated development of Jammu, Kashmir, Pahalgam, Kargil, Leh under Himalayan Circuit worth Rs 82.07 crore, integrated development of Tourist Facilities at Jammu-Rajouri-Shopian-Pulwama under Himalayan Circuit worth Rs 96 .38 crore, integrated development of  Tourist Facilities under the Construction of Assets in lieu of those Destroyed in Floods in 2014 under PM Development Package for J&K under Himalayan Circuit worth Rs 90.96 crore, integrated Development of Tourist facilities at Mantalai- Sudhmahadev- Patnitop under Himalayan Circuit worth Rs 97.82 crore, integrated Development of Tourist Facilities at Anantnag- Kishtwar- Pahalgam – Daksum – Ranjit Sagar Dam under Himalayan Circuit worth Rs 87.44 crore and integrated Development of Tourist Facilities at Gulmarg-Baramulla-Kupwara-Leh under Himalayan Circuit worth Rs 96.93 crore.