Tag Archives: MoT

Speaking at the side event of the 2nd TWG meeting in Siliguri, Arvind Singh, Secretary, MOT, said that the event is a great occasion to discuss, ideate possibilities to achieve the SDG’s. “The deliberations reiterate the notion that Adventure tourism can be a positive cause for achieving the 2030 sustainable development goals,” he said.

MOT organised the regional workshop on developing sustainable and responsible toruist destination, where Rakesh Verma, Addl. Sec, Tourism said. “Our key objective is to create awareness of sustainability particularly for sustainable tourism. It is important for us to understand what sustainability and sustainable tourism is. It is not only about the government, the private sector but it includes all the stakeholders who have to come together to make sure we are making a difference in future of tourism.”

Ajeet Bajaj, President, ATOAI, has said that setting up the National Board for Adventure Tourism by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, is a welcome step, “We have already had two board meetings and are gaining momentum. This inter-ministerial board with state governments’ participation will help resolve many issues pertaining to adventure tourism in India.”

In response to hotel industry’s demand for amendment in the definition of infrastructure status, Arvind Singh, Secretary, MOT said, “We are looking at changing the definition of infrastructure status for hotels to help the industry attract investment. It has the attention of the higher authorities and we will have an order on it shortly.  It is currently as per 2011 census and needs to change to accommodate the demands of hospitality business today.”

The Parliamentary Committee has advised the MOT that there is a huge potential for India to realize and aggressively advance towards attracting medical tourists from other parts of the world, including Europe and America. “India receives most of its medical tourists from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Oman, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nigeria, Kenya and Iraq,” it said in its report.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, has said that the MOT will be organising a national conference of tourism ministers in July to work on a strategy for promoting India as an important destination to the rest of the world. “The agenda will be how to project India and the states to different parts of the world to attract both domestic and international tourism in the years to come,” he added.  

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, has thanked the MOT and MoCA for reinstating the Commercial Airport Entry Airport Pass (AEP) for recognized tour operators and hotels. “We have been trying for a long time and now the orders have finally come. Now, at least when the borders open, our members can apply for airports passes in the same manner as they used to earlier, except there has been some capping on the number of passes available, for which we were given indication two years back, when the airport passes were being suspended,” he said.

The matter regarding extending the validity of the approval/ recognition of the existing stakeholders (tour operators/ travel agents/tourist transport operators) given by the Ministry of Tourism and grant of provisional recognition for the new agencies in view of crisis caused due to the Covid-19 pandemic has been considered in the Ministry. It has been decided to give extension to the existing validity of the tour operators, travel agents and tourist transport operators upto 30.06.2022.

Rakesh Verma, Additional Secretary, Tourism, has said that the draft tourism policy has five missions at its core, and the first one is National Green Tourism Mission, which looks at mainstreaming sustainability in the tourism sector. “It’s a key challenge the sector faces and it is also one of the lessons from the pandemic that we need to develop tourism on sustainable and responsible lines.”

The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) is reportedly planning to lease out ‘The Ashok’ to investors and turn the 25-acre property into a ‘multi-purpose’ building, which would have an array of facilities including service apartments and a mall, revealed an official. According to a PTI report, MOT working on the details of bidding and aims to complete the process in the current financial year. “The intention is to turn ‘The Ashok’ into an iconic building which would house service apartments, besides a mall and other amenities taking advantage of its location,” said the official.