Tag Archives: ITDC

Ministry of Tourism, along with its India Tourism Offices, IHMs, Indian Institute of Tourism & Travel Management (IIT- TM), and ITDC is participating in the Special Campaign for Disposal of Pending Matters including 6,331 physical files and 1.803 e-office files that have been identified for review.

Ashok Travels & Tours (ATT), the travel business division of ITDC, has been appointed as the official travel partner for India’s Paralympic team at the Paris 2024 Olympics. The partnership reflects a shared commitment to excellence and ensures a seamless travel experience for the athletes, coaches, and the entire Indian contingent. A grand send-off event was organized at The Ashok, New Delhi, where the Nation’s Paralympic heroes were honoured. The event symbolized the nation’s collective pride and optimism as our Paralympics athletes embark on their journey to Paris 2024.

The India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has unveiled its mascot: ‘Adyant,’ and a new tagline, representing their strategic move which is aimed at enhancing brand recognition. ITDC also plans to promote The Ashok as a wedding venue, aligning with the wedding tourism campaign.

G Kamala Vardhan Rao, Director General, Ministry of Tourism and CMD, ITDC, has said that they are concentrating on promoting, incentivising and prompting travel, which is needed to give a boost to the hotel sector, tour operators, guides, taxi drivers, and all the stakeholders who have lost jobs. “Our fundamental concern is to see that once the engine of tourism is on, all stakeholders in the tourism sector will be employed. Hence, our main concern is to gain this employment back, to gain the confidence levels of the hotels sector back to normalcy and gain the confidence of hoteliers and all the stakeholders in the tourism sector,” he said.

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.”

India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), through its education wing AIH&TM organized a session on ‘Yoga For Health & Wellness’ for its employees. The session conducted on the occasion of International Yoga Day was led by Shri Yoga Acharaya, who taught ‘Vedic Aashtanga Yog’ and shed light on simple yet powerful tools to manifest health & vitality in life. Further, the session also discussed the protocols of Yoga & Pranayam by the Ministry Of Aayush, Government of India.

Ashok Travels and Tours (ATT), the Travel division of India Tourism Development Corporation, New Delhi (ITDC) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) have signed an MoU, under which ATT will provide online travel solution for booking air tickets and travel-related services to 414 units and commands of CISF during official journeys. The MoU was signed by Shri. Rajiv Anand GM (ATT) and Shri. V K Yadav, AIG Administrator on 16th June 2021, in the presence of senior officials from both organizations. G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, C&MD, ITDC said, “The travel industry has been severely impacted with the ongoing pandemic. We are honoured that CISF has given us an opportunity to provide an essential service to them. We look forward to helping CISF in Resource optimization and facilitating optimal planning.”

Ashok Institute of Hospitality & Tourism Management (AIH&TM), a certified hospitality training institute under India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), has introduced a tailor-made program in ‘Entrepreneurship Development’ exclusively designed for graduates in the tourism & hospitality industry. The programme was formally inaugurated by Arvind Singh, IAS, Secretary (Tourism) at a webinar hosted by ITDC. Singh, said, “ITDC’s initiative to create entrepreneurs under its Entrepreneurship Development Programme is a very timely and welcome initiative with the support of Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) under their organizations namely National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology (NCHMCT) & National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD). All interested graduates, diploma holders, and professionals who have lost their jobs will be approached for enrolment under the programme. These are very tough times for the industry and we are working towards the revival of the sector. I wish the programme all success”. The webinar was convened by Shri. G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, IAS, C&MD, India Tourism Development Council (ITDC) and had in attendance eminent officials, including Atul Kumar Tiwari, IAS, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Neelam Shami Rao, IAS, DG, National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD) and Gyan Bhushan, CEO ,National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology  (NCHMCT). Motivational talks and experiences were shared by Sh. Ritesh Aggarwal CEO, OYO Rooms & Sh. Abhinav Balyan, MD&CEO, Educator Extraordinaire Ltd. Under the ‘Entrepreneurship Development Programme’, graduates from hotel management institutes as well as recently unemployed and other experienced hospitality professionals would be provided with the non-financial support for running catering or hospitality-related establishments (canteen/café, Event Management, Manpower Services, Banquet services, …

Post the ease in travel guidelines and resumption of domestic tourism, ITDC along with other industry leaders participated in a webinar organised by Indo Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ISCCI) to discuss the overview of tourism industry in Sri Lanka. G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, Chairman and Managing Director, ITDC joined the discussion along with other eminent dignitaries including Dr Krishna Kumar, Former Union Minister, Government of India, Lt Gen Rakesh Kumar Loomba, PVSM, AVSM, Engineer Naseer Ahamed, Member, Parliament in Sri Lankan Parliament, Mr Dushan Wickramasuriya, Director Marketing of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and Mr Aamir Ali, ED, Sri Lanka Airlines. While delivering keynote address during webinar organized by Indo Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ISLCCI) on ‘An Overview of Tourism Industry in Sri Lanka’  C&MD, ITDC highlighted that there is a great potential for improving tourism and tourism related activities between India and Sri Lanka during COVID scenario.  He highlighted the importance of various products such as Buddhist circuit and Ramayana Circuit and mentioned the efforts made by Ministry of Tourism in promoting Indo Sri Lanka tourist relations and strengthening the eco system.  He also highlighted the potential growth in cruise tourism between Sri Lanka and India, Ayurveda and Yoga are the other significant areas of mutual cooperation.

Anmol Zutshi, GM, Ashok Events, ITDC, says that there will be an increase in the number of hybrid events, going forward. “With restrictions in place and with reduced number of people allowed at events, there will be a happy mix of physical and virtual events. We hope things open up soon, because events require human interaction and feel,” he iterates.