Tag Archives: Ministry of Tourism

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.

Yatra Online has been shortlisted for the adoption of four monuments including Qutub Minar (Delhi), Ajanta Caves (Maharashtra), Hampi (Karnataka) and Leh Palace (Jammu & Kashmir), under ‘Adopt a Heritage Scheme’ of Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India. The ‘Letter of Intent’ has been given to select companies, including Yatra, for adopting certain monuments under the scheme at the closing ceremony of ‘Paryatan Parv’ held in New Delhi recently. As a part of the ‘Adopt a Heritage Scheme’, Yatra along with the other shortlisted companies will be called ‘Monument Mitras’ or ‘Monument friends’ as they will work towards managing the monuments/heritage sites across India in a planned and phased manner. The objective of this initiative is to increase the attractiveness of the sites, enhance the visiting experience, improve accessibility and engage with the community in addition to providing and managing basic and advanced amenities at these sites. Commenting on the same, Dhruv Shringi, CEO Yatra.com, “At Yatra, we want to create and conserve an India that is enjoyed by all visitors whether Indians, foreigners, residents or tourists, for today and future generations. By being a part of this endeavour to promote heritage and conserve India’s historical legacy, we are committed to give back to the society by putting our community at the very core of our business. Yatra was selected by Inter-Ministerial Oversight and Vision Committee of Ministry after detailed scrutiny of 57 responses ranging from travel industry, hospitality industry and banking industry for adopting monuments.”

Post WTM London, Ministry of Tourism is all set to participate in FITUR, which will be held in Madrid from January 17-21, 2018. Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Tourism, revealed that India will be the partner country for FITUR, and is preparing for the same. “We will be participating in a very big way and the campaign has also been planned for the event in and around FITUR exhibition. We have many plans for it. Since the clientele in Spain is different, we will look at the countries which are participating at FITUR and offer our niche products as per their specific markets,” she informed.

According to the data released by Ministry of Tourism, Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) during the month of September 2017 were recorded at Rs.13,867 crore as compared to Rs.11,642 crore in September 2016 and Rs.10,415 crore in September 2015. The growth rate in FEEs in rupee terms in September 2017 over September 2016 was 19.1 per cent as compared to the growth of 11.8 per cent in September 2016 over September 2015. FEEs during the period January- September 2017, was recorded at Rs.1,29,871 crore, amounting to a growth of 16.8 percent over same period of previous year. The FEEs during January-September 2016 were Rs.1,11,229 crore and amounted to a growth of 13.7 percent over January- September, 2015.

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, in collaboration with other central ministries, state governments and stakeholders has organised a nationwide celebration of tourism from October 5-25, 2017, called ‘Paryatan Parv’. As a grand finale to the 21-day celebration, a three-day event is being organised at the Rajpath Lawns, New Delhi (between Rafi Marg and Janpath) from the 23rd to 25th October 2017. The event will be open to the public from 12 noon to 10 pm on all three days and will include cultural performances, a crafts bazaar, multi-cuisine food court and other interactive activities to keep visitors engaged at the event venue. The food court will have 50 stalls set up by the states/UTs, each showcasing their distinctive cuisine, the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) with street food from different regions as well as by the Institutes of Hotel Management and ITDC. The crafts mela with 50 stalls will showcase the diverse handicrafts and handlooms of the country, arranged by the state governments and Ministry of Textiles through the Office of the Development Commissioners of Handicrafts and handlooms. There will be 15 Theme State Pavilions where each state will showcase their tourism products and destinations. Cultural performances by troupes from the different states/UTs of the country will be staged from 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm on all three days. In addition to the cultural performances by the states/UTs, special cultural events will be staged from 6:00 pm onwards on all three days. These will include ‘Purani Dilli Ki Dastan’ presented by Begum Zakia Zaheer, Syeda Hameed and Rene Singh on 23rd October 2017, “Dhrupad Vocal” by Prashant & Nishant Mallick (Mallick Brothers) on 24th October 2017, …

Odisha tourism department plans to start a special drive to encourage its citizens in Bhubaneswar to provide homestay facilities to the tourists from the first week of November. The tourism department will accord licence to house owners, who register themselves with the former. Under the scheme, the house owners can offer up to 5 rooms or 10 beds with good facilities. The house owner will be required to provide Indian breakfast to the guests and display the room tariff. Tourism officials will regularly visit the houses and take feedback of the tourists. “We will carry out awareness campaigns through advertisements so that people come to know about the homestay facility. From November first week, we will start direct registration of homes at our department. Earlier, people were applying to the Ministry of Tourism. Now the ministry has asked us to receive applications from people and conduct verification before permitting them to start homestay facility,” said Nitin Jawale, Director-Tourism, Government of Odisha. He further stressed that this move would help augment rooms for tourists in the city and other places. The state tourism department will also train the house owner, family members, caretakers and other staff on how to deal with tourists. Preferably those houses will be selected which is not crowded. Location of the houses, hygiene and safety aspects will also be considered during the inspection. Source: Times of India

M. M. Sadana, Dy. Director General, Ministry of Tourism, has been promoted to the post of Joint Director General . He will continue to operate from India Tourism’s Delhi office.