Tag Archives: Principal Secretary

The theme of Maharashtra Tourism’s stall at ITB Berlin this year was ‘Sustainable Tourism’ and ‘Tourism 360-degree’ to offer new avenues of tourism. The delegation was led by Vijay Gautam, IAS, Principal Secretary, Tourism & Culture and Aashutosh Rathod, Joint Managing Director, MTDC who presided over key B2B meetings and spoke about the prospects of ensuing collaborations with counterparts to attract tourists all across the globe. Maharashtra aims to provide a meaningful experience to travellers, creating awareness about sustainability matters and encouraging these practices among them. The response generated by travel and tour operators for MTDC’s initiative at ITB Berlin 2018 was promising.

The Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) will kick-start in Kochi on September 27, 2018 with Malabar Tourism promotion as its main theme. The three-day conclave, organised by KTM Society in partnership with Kerala Tourism, will be held from September 28-30. Pre-registration of buyers will commence in January 2018. “The 10th edition of KTM will be inaugurated coinciding with World Tourism Day (September 27) in Kochi. The inauguration will be followed by three-day business to business meetings. There is huge scope for tourism growth in Malabar with the inauguration of Kannur airport next year,” he said. The minister said the Responsible Tourism Mission has already started activities to spread its objectives to more places and make it a state-wide project, instead of concentrating it in a few places. Kerala Tourism Principal Secretary Dr Venu V said, “There is more to KTM than trade exchanges. The mart will feature 400 stalls showcasing a range of products, packages and services offered by businesses and entrepreneurs.” Source: PTI

The Government of Kerala is looking at 50 per cent increase in the number of domestic tourists and 100  per cent increase in foreign arrivals by 2021, Tourism Minister, Kadakampally Surendran has said. “Digital platforms are the key to achieve the aim. Year after year, we see a constant growth in the number of tourists we host. Hence the industry needs to evolve in accordance with the changes in global market. Kerala Tourism has been exploring new media as a key platform and has witnessed the reach and response to it,” he noted. Dr. Venu V, IAS, Principal Secretary, Kerala Tourism, says, “Kerala Tourism has always been in the forefront as we were the first tourist destination to start a website. Later, we spread our presence to other social media platforms. The technology platforms are gently stronger. Hence we need to redesign and reengineer to cater the demands of guests.”

The Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala in association with Association of Tourism Trade Organisations (ATTOI) will host the International Conference on Tourism Technology (ICTT) in Kochi. The three-day long event that will begin on June 8 will be formally inaugurated by Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran on June 9, and it will address the challenges related with technology faced by Indian tourism and hospitality industry. The inaugural function will see a string of high-profile attendees, including Hibi Eden MLA, Dr Venu V, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of Tourism, and P Bala Kiran, IAS, Director, Department of Tourism. Dr. Venu will launch the twitter campaign #Kerala #IndiaForBeginners and Shri Bala Kiran will launch the Facebook campaign during the inaugural ceremony. “Kerala Tourism has always been a pioneer in taking significant steps to promote state tourism and support the growth of the tourism industry. This conference on tourism technology is yet another initiative undertaken in association with ATTOI. Keeping pace with the technological advancements also helps in reaching out to international tourists by being easily accessible through social media platforms,” said Minister for Tourism, Kadakampally Surendran. “Kerala Tourism, with its new tourism policy, is preparing for a big leap in promoting responsible tourism that benefits the visitor as well as local communities. The government is confident that the progress of the state through tourism is unfinished without the idea of inclusion in terms of increased participation of the community in general,” he added.

Stayzilla.com and Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL) signed an MOU to jointly promote and market homestays and alternate stays in the state of Gujarat. The MOU was signed and exchanged by  S.J.Haider (IAS), Principal Secretary (Tourism) of Gujarat Tourism in the presence of Hon. Union Minister of State for Tourism and Culture, Dr. Mahesh Sharma and Hon. Tourism Secretary, Vinod Zutshi, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Under this agreement, Stayzilla and Gujarat Tourism will share the current base of homestays on each other’s digital platforms to bring more awareness on homestays in Gujarat. Stayzilla will also aid verification procedures and jointly promote the concept of homestays in the state. All homestays registered with TCGL will receive technological and operational support to run. Also, Stayzilla & TCGL will jointly conduct education and training sessions for TCGL registered homestays on best practices such as online usage, content management, operations and expense management, which will benefit the hosts of the homestays. The company is closely working with various state tourism departments for joint promotion and marketing of homestays. Stayzilla has recently signed MoUs with Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation and Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board to enhance homestay concept among the travelers in these states. There have been around 600 workshops conducted pan India, at various locations, with the hosts from different corners, out of which about 80 workshops were conducted in various towns and cities of Gujarat. This has helped in boosting homestay supply in Gujarat over the last 6months, thereby bringing up the number of verified homestays in the state to over 400. Commenting on this announcement, Ankit Rastogi, Vice President, Marketplace, Stayzilla said, “We, at Stayzilla, have maintained …

Tourism has been given industry status by Haryana Government for land use purpose. The tourism projects identified under land use are activities relating to amusement, recreation, theme parks; adventure tourism projects; heritage hotels except standalone hotels, tourist resorts, food streets, outdoor dining areas, food courts, restaurants; commercial components within recreational and commercial activities etc. informed Devender Singh, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department, Government of Haryana. Singh added that the provisions would be applicable to mega projects only involving an investment of Rs 100 crore or above or employing more than 500 people. The conditions would also be applicable with prospective effect to all the new as well as expansion projects involving an investment of Rs 50 crore or more. He also added that the notification to this effect has been issued. (Source: Times of India)

Maharashtra Government will provide financial assistance of upto Rs 50 lakh to persons who wish to set up their tourism business under its Start Up scheme. This was announced by Valsa Nair Singh, IAS, Principal Secretary,  Tourism and Culture, Government of Maharashtra. She added, “The coming two years are very important for the progress and prosperity of the tourism sector. The year 2017 will be celebrated as Visit Maharashtra Year and the year 2018 we will be celebrating completion of 200 years of the discovery of the world heritage Ajanta Caves by British officer John Smith. A campaign to promote tourism destinations of Maharashtra all over the world will be undertaken aggressively under Visit Maharashtra 2017. In 2018, many events will be hosted to attract international and domestic tourists to Ajanta and other destinations of the city. There is a huge scope to organise Food Festival and Handicraft Festival in the city, apart from Golf Tourism. A proposal to set up Buddhist Centre on MTDC’s 900 acres land at Ellora is under consideration.” The three-day Ellora-Ajanta Festival will be held with the help of the MTDC from October 14 to 16, said the principal secretary suggesting the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation to run an excursion bus to conduct City Tours connecting all the tourist places. She also underlined the need of enhancing the air connectivity of Aurangabad with cities like Jaipur, Udaipur, Nagpur and Pune other than Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. Mentioning the need for hosting film shootings at Ellora, Ajanta and other important places in Aurangabad, Smt. Valsa Nair Singh commented “The countries like Switzerland and Spain witnessed a boom in tourism due to film shootings. A beeline was formed to see …