Category Archives: MOT

India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB) will conduct its ‘Conventions India Conclave’ at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre, Kolkata, from August 29-31, 2018. Themed on ‘Scaling New Heights – Building for the Future’, the focus of the flagship event will be on how ICPB can enhance its activities and compete in the international market. The body aims to focus creating opportunity of bidding for international conferences. A statement from ICPB stated, “The 11th Conclave is very significant for us as ICPB will be opening its first State Chapter in Kolkata during the Conclave on August 30, 2018.” The two-day event will have sessions and panel discussions on various topics such as, ‘A panel discussion on Public Private Partnership for Destination Marketing, Social Media Marketing – Changing Scenario – Impact on Industry and Way Forward and A Winning Formula for Bidding for International Conferences, and more. The Ministry of Tourism, West Bengal Government is the Platinum Sponsor and the State Partner, while Biswa Bangla Convention Centre is the Venue Partner for the forthcoming conclave.  

With an aim to project India as a ‘must visit’ tourist destination, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism, K J Alphons will attend a series of ‘Incredible India roadshows’ in the US, from June 18-22,  2018. The roadshows will be held in several major cities of US including New York, Chicago & Houston. The Incredible India roadshows will hold B2B interactions, presentations and press briefings by the Indian delegation. The key note addresses will be delivered by the Tourism Minister and Incredible India presentation will be made by Joint Secretary Ministry of Tourism Suman Billa. The roadshows will include cultural performances also. USA is one among the top three source countries in the percentage share of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India. During April 2018, the US was the second highest source country with 11.21 per cent share of total FTAs.

K J Alphons, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism has launched the new Incredible India website which showcases India as a holistic destination, revolving around major experiences, such as, spirituality, heritage, adventure, culture, yoga, wellness and more. The website follows the trends and technologies of international standards with an aim to project India as a “must-visit” destination, among its overseas travellers. Launching the new dynamic and interactive website with latest platform and technology, the minister hoped that the website will evolve as one of the best in the world. He also said that the new website is more interactive and it will have all the required content and further, the content shall be updated in a timely manner. Alphons thanked the stakeholders like Tech Mahindra, Google, Adobe and NIC team who were involved in the development of the website. Speaking at the event, Secretary Tourism, Rashmi Verma said that new website will suggest a visitor the options and there is no need of any queries. She also added that the website will provide information all over the world even about exotic destinations of the country. The Secretary also conveyed that the website has already started getting visits from US, Russia and China. The website has many useful features to make it more interactive and to provide a deeper engagement to the travelers visiting the website. With the help of Adobe solution suite, the Ministry of Tourism will now be able to engage effectively with visitors across Web & Social channels and measure engagement.

Alphons Kannanthanam, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism along with a delegation of senior officials attended the 108th session of UNWTO Executive Council from May 23- May 25  in San Sebastian, Spain, in which it was decided that, in order to address new challenge and trends, UNWTO will pay special attention to scaling up innovation and digitisation in the tourism sector. During the three day Executive Council meeting, the minister chaired the ‘Programme and Budget Committee’ meeting of UNWTO.  Kannanthanam highlighted the role of tourism in socio-economic development through job creation, enterprise and environment development and foreign exchange earnings. He also brought out the impact of innovation and new technology, which have become key factor for competitiveness of every economic sector including tourism. The minister also had a meeting with the Secretary-General of UNWTO,  Zurab Pololikashvili and discussed on developing a Joint Action Plan focused on Tourism Innovation and Digital Transformation including the positioning of India on this Action Plan of UNWTO. The discussions also included involving UNWTO in developing tourism as a strong agent for the better future of the world and establishing the Global Public Private Partnerships. The subject regarding strengthening the relationship between India and UNWTO was also discussed in this meeting.

The Ministry of Tourism is increasingly focusing on promoting Buddhist tourism, for which not only are they working on promotion, but also infrastructure development. MOT recently concluded a roadshow to a few ASEAN countries, and is all set to organise the International Buddhist Conclave in August. Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, said, “Buddhist Tourism is our priority area and in line with the same, we just concluded a roadshow in four countries–Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. We saw a lot of interest in people from these countries for coming to India and visiting these sites. We are also organising the International Budddhist Conclave from August 26-28, in which we will have business meetings and will also be inviting prominent monks from these countries. The inauguration will be held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, and then by charter flights we will take all the delegates to Ajanta and Ellora caves. This  is the first time we will be showcasing other sites related to Buddhism. From there, we will be take them to Bodhgaya and Sarnath. With this, we are hopeful that after this, the delegates would be able to see the improved infrastructure at these sites, which will encourage them to make visits to our country.”

Ministry of tourism is set to organise its Global Travel Mart from September 18-20, 2018 in association with Federation of Associations of Indian Travel and Hospitality (FAITH). Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, said, “We are taking a number of new initiatives. For a long time, it was the demand of the industry that we should also have a Global Travel Mart in our country on the lines of WTM and ITB, and this year we have finalised the mart in partnership with the industry. MOT will be organising this Global Travel Mart from September 18-20 in Delhi and we will be getting participants from all over the world and about 200-250 foreign delegates and media will be participating in it. The entire travel trade industry will be partners in this and their apex organisation FAITH will be doing it with us in partnership. This new initiative would give opportunity to the entire travel trade and will give a lot of fillip to the tourist traffic to India.

The Government of India has set a target of 20 million foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) by 2020 and double the foreign exchange earnings as well, according to a latest report by Ministry of Tourism. The number of FTAs in March 2018 were 1.03 million as compared to FTAs of 905,000 in March 2017, showing an year-on-year growth of 13.4 per cent. In CY 2017, foreign tourist arrival in India stood at 10.177 million and reached 3.13 million in January-March 2018. Growth in tourist arrivals has been due to flexible government policies, developed rail and road infrastructure, ease in availability of e-visas to foreign tourists. The Government of India is working to achieve 1 per cent share in world’s international tourist arrivals by 2020 and 2 per cent share by 2025.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) this April were 7,49,477 as compared to 7,17,899 in April 2017, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Tourism. The growth rate in FTAs in April 2018 over April 2017 was 4.4 per cent. FTAs during the period January-April 2018 were 38,76,021 as compared to 34,98,969 in January-April 2017 registering a growth of 10.8%. The percentage share of Foreign Tourist Arrivals in India during April 2018 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (24.32%) followed by USA (11.21%), UK (9.14%), Sri Lanka (3.48%), Australia (3.33%), Malaysia (3.06%), China (2.62%), Canada (2.53%), Germany (2.48%), France (2.33%), Japan (2.22%), Russian Federation (2.07%), Thailand (1.70%), Afghanistan (1.65%) and  Nepal (1.64%).

The foreign tourist visit to all States and UTs has been increasing over the years and in the year 2016,the visits by foreign tourists registered a growth of 5.92 per cent over 2015, according to a statistics report by Ministry of Tourism. The report says that number of foreign tourist visits to States/Uts during last 13 years has been registering an increasing trend overall, except for marginal decline in foreign visits in the years 2009 and 2012. The top five states in foreign tourist visits in 2016 were Tamil Nadu (4.72 million), Maharashtra(4.67million), Uttar Pradesh (31.53 million). Meanwhile, the report says that, there has been continuous increase in domestic tourist visits to States/ UTs with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.03 per cent from 1991 to 2016. The top five states in domestic tourist visits in 2016 were Tamil Nadu (343.8 million), Uttar Pradesh (211.7 million), Andhra Pradesh (153.2 million, Madhya Pradesh (150.5 million) and Karnataka (129.8 million).

According to data from Bureau of Immigration, Government of India, Bangladesh, USA and UK were the top three countries in terms of FTAs in India during February 2018. The top 10 source countries accounted for 61 per cent of the total inbound tourist flows in the year 2017. The introduction of e-Visa has led to a strong surge in Foreign Tourist Arrival resulting in a Y-o-Y growth of 62% in February 2018 compared to February 2017. UK, USA and France were the top three source countries availing e-Tourist Visa facilities during February 2018.