Tag Archives: Ministry of Tourism

Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) in association with the Ministry of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, is set to launch the first edition of the Mumbai Shopping Festival (MSF). India’s first-of-its-kind citywide three-week festival will be celebrated from January 12-31, 2018 across Mumbai. The festival will include immersive retail experiences clubbed with live performances across the city. In lieu of the recent notification by the Government of Maharashtra where shops and establishments can now stay open 24X7, the Ministry of Tourism and MTDC will set up Mumbai’s first-ever Night Bazaar Flea Market which will go on till 4 am on weekends only. To enhance visibility of the Mumbai Shopping Festival, MTDC has teamed up with various associations with various retail and commerce bodies. Shopping partners for the Mumbai Shopping Festival 2018 include major malls and retail chains in Mumbai. Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, said, “I am pleased to announce this festival as we launch Mumbai as a world-class shopping destination. We are delighted to see interest from our partners including retailers, brands, restaurants, who have given innumerable hours to making the Mumbai Shopping Festival a reality. We look forward to the participation of each and every Mumbaikar, and citizens of the country in joining us to celebrate this mega extravaganza.”

While the tourism sector in India has gained huge impetus in recent times, the lack of infrastructure to support the surge in tourism has now caught the eye of the sector. In a recent statement, Tourism Ministry officials have revealed that India has a shortage of nearly 2 lakh hotel rooms and is struggling to manage the acceleration in tourist arrivals. “We are plagued with a huge shortage of hotel rooms and instead of building new ones, we are trying to encourage homestays and exploring other alternatives like tying up with existing known brands with operational hotels and accrediting them,” said a senior official. The MOT is also working on creating five special tourism zones in the country so that these areas can be developed into tourist hotspots, officials said. According to a report of the working group on tourism for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), for a projected annual growth of 12 per cent in foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs), the projected requirement of additional hotel rooms in 2016 over 2010, was estimated to be 1,90,108.

The Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned an amount of Rs.95.67 crore for the Development of Coastal Circuit in Dakshin Kannada dist., Uttar Kannada dist. and Udupi dist. in Karnataka under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme, as per information by K.J. Alphons, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism. MOT has launched the Swadesh Darshan Scheme for developing 15 identified theme based tourist circuits and the National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD) Scheme for developing 25 identified pilgrimage destinations. The Ministry develops tourism related infrastructure and promotes India as a tourism destination to increase tourist arrivals which, in turn, creates job opportunities in the country.    

Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, will lead PATA India Chapter as its Chairperson for the term 2017-19. This was announced during the 47th Annual General Meeting of PATA India Chapter held at The Claridges, New Delhi on December 19. While SanJeet, Director, DDP Publications, was re-elected as the association’s Vice Chairman; J.S. Taneja, MD, Travel Spirit International, will continue to hold the post of Hon. Secretary, and the post of Hon. Treasurer has been re-assigned to Vikram Madhok, MD, Abercrombie & Kent. The association also elected its Executive Committee for the term 2017-19. Under the Active Government Category, Rashmi Verma and Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India will hold the post, while Ravneet Kaur, CMD, ITDC and Sanjiv Garg, Additional Member T&C, Ministry of Railways will be EC members under the Associate Government Category. Pankaj Srivastava, Director-Commercial, Air India, has been elected EC member under the International Carrier category. Under the Domestic Carrier category, Ragini Chopra, VP, Jet Airways and M.P. Mall, CMD, IRCTC have been elected. The four posts for Travel Agents/Tour Operators category have been given to Vikram Madhok, J.S. Taneja, Snirmol Ghosh, Director, Indo Asia Tours and Anoop Kanuga, Director, Bathija Travels. Under the Hotels/ Associate Hotels category, the three members are: Renu Basu, VP, Indian Hotels; Arjun Sharma, MD, Select Holiday Resorts; and Rohit Arora, GM, Apeejay Surendra Park Hotel. SanJeet will be an EC member under the Sustaining Member category.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) this November were 10.05 lakh as compared to FTAs of 8.78 lakh in November 2016 and 8.16 lakh in November 2015, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Tourism. The growth rate in FTAs in November 2017 over November 2016 was 14.4 per cent as compared to 7.6 per cent in November 2016 over November 2015. FTAs during the period January- November 2017 were 90.1 lakh with a growth of 15.5 per cent over the same period of previous year, as compared to the FTAs of 77.83 lakh with a growth of 9.4 per cent in January-November, 2016 over January-November, 2015. The percentage share of FTAs in India during November 2017 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (16.77 per cent) followed by USA (14.77 per cent), UK (9.93 per cent), Russian Fed. (4.41 per cent), Canada (4.39 per cent), Australia (3.96 per cent), Malaysia (3.50 per cent), Germany (2.90 per cent), France (2.51 per cent), Sri Lanka (2.32 per cent), China (2.26 per cent), Singapore (2.04 per cent), Japan (2.03 per cent), Thailand (1.87 per cent), and Rep. of Korea (1.31 per cent).

Travelport and the Republic of Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism have announced a new global digital marketing campaign to increase tourism to the world’s largest archipelago. The campaign, which is part of the Ministry’s ‘Wonderful Indonesia’ international tourism marketing strategy, will deliver tailored online messaging to targeted travel agents in 15 countries around the world using Travelport’s advanced Destination Marketing technology. “Indonesia is one of the world’s most beautiful countries, full of fascinating sights and tastes that we want to share with the world.” said I Gde Pitana, Deputy Minister for International Marketing and Communication, for the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism. The Ministry of Tourism believes the campaign will help increase tourism from the record setting 15-plus million tourists expected in 2017 by driving incremental tourist arrivals into Indonesia. Niklas Andreen, Vice President and Managing Director, Global Hospitality and Digital, Travelport, added, “It is a great honour to work with the Ministry of Tourism on this campaign to increase tourism to the country. With access to more than 68,000 Travelport travel agents around the world, our destination marketing solution continues to deliver exceptional value to customers.”

The Ministry of Tourism has decided to close its foreign offices at Los Angeles, Toronto, Sydney, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan and Johannesburg. Alphons Kannanthanam, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism, confirmed the news saying that they will be closing a few international offices in the near future. According to an official release from the MOT, the ministry will open a new office at Moscow. Thus, the Ministry of Tourism will now have offices at New York, Dubai, Frankfurt, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore and London.

The Ministry of Tourism in association with the North Eastern States is set to organise the International Tourism Mart (ITM) in Guwahati, Assam from December 5-7, 2017. The event will be held at Taj Vivanta, and will be inaugurated by Jagdish Mukhi, Governor of Assam in the presence of Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister, Assam and K J Alphons, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism, along with other dignitaries from Central Ministries and North Eastern States. The 6th ITM will focus on India’s ‘Act East Policy’, blossoming ties with ASEAN and the larger East Asia region. Besides deliberations on promotion of tourism in the North East Region, the panel discussions will also lay emphasis on promoting cultural ties, strengthening contact with countries in the ASEAN region and providing enhanced connectivity to the North Eastern states. The ITM 2017 will also see an active participation by the Ministry of DONER to synergise the process of development of tourism in the North East region.

Ambience Mall, Gurugram played host to a two-day Korea Festival showcasing South Korea’s art, culture and heritage for the visitors to the mall. Organised by (KTO), the event was targeted to the consumers and had a separate stall where travel partners for KTO also showcased their itineraries and travel products to people. The event was inaugurated by Min Hong Min, Executive Vice President, KTO and Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. The event also saw high energy B-boying performances and Nanta performance by professionals flown in from South Korea, especially for the event.

  Speaking at the 6th Update & Outlook Meeting organised by PATA India and Ministry of Tourism in New Delhi, Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India announced the merger of the HRIDYA and PRASAD Scheme with effect from the start of 2018. She said, “The Ministry of Tourism has been in talks with the Urban Development Ministry and they have been given an in-principle approval to merge the Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) with the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) Scheme. The merger will help augment a greater synergy between the rural and urban spiritual sites like temple, church, mosque, etc thereby, providing a holistic development of these sites and an increase in the funding for the scheme.” Verma highlighted the great acceleration that tourism sector has witnessed in India. The platform was also used to reveal various initiatives by the Ministry of Tourism to propel and sustain the growth hence achieved. She also highlighted the shift in strategy of the ministry with regards to marketing campaigns from print and electronic mediums onto social platforms.