Tag Archives: tourism

President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the International Buddhist Conclave (IBC), 2018 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi  in the presence of KJ Alphons, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism; Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Tourism; Satyajit Rajan, Director General, Tourism; ministerial delegates from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Travel trade representatives from India and various other countries were also present for the conclave. Addressing the audience, Kovind said, “India is the land of Buddha and this initiative by Ministry of Tourism would attract visitors from around the world to come to India and experience the Buddhist destinations in the country.” The first day of the conclave also included presentations by the Ministry of Tourism and state governments on Buddhist tourism prospects in the country. An investor’s summit was also going on alongside the conclave to look for investment opportunities in the Buddhist tourism sector in the country. A B2B session was also conducted between foreign and Indian tour operators along with a panel discussion on ‘Role of Living Buddhist Heritage in the Contemporary Society’. The Conclave is being organised by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the state governments of Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh from August 23-26, 2018 at New Delhi and Ajanta (Maharashtra).

In a bid to attract more foreign tourists, the Ministry of Tourism will take a slew of measures to promote the upcoming Kumbh Mela globally. The 49-day-long fair is scheduled to begin in Allahabad on January 2019. In a written reply in Lok Sabha, KJ Alphons, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism said, “The Ministry will launch ‘Chalo Kumbh Chalo’ campaign across the country and other marketing campaigns to promote the fair. We are organising the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ in Varanasi to attract ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Delegates’ to visit the holy congregation.” “We will lay out advertisements promoting Kumbh 2019 at major international airports of the country to attract foreign tourists. We will also develop designated area for flag hoisting for 192 countries visiting Kumbh Mela,” Alphons added.

The Indian hotel market is projected to grow to around USD 13 bn by 2020, according to FICCI-Yes Bank Knowledge Paper titled ‘Tourism Infrastructure Investments: Leveraging Partnerships for Exponential Growth’. Further, as per World Travel & Tourism Council’s 2018 report, the industry contribution to capital investment in India was Rs 2706.1 bn in 2017 and is projected to grow 6.7 per cent per annum in next 10 years to Rs 5546.3 bn by 2028, higher than the global average of 4.5 per cent. Despite increase in private sector investment, the Indian hotel industry observed a decline in average room rate and room occupancy in 2016-17 which is largely attributed to lower participation of hotels in the five-star deluxe and five-star categories in India.

KJ Alphons, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism, Government of India, has launched the Indian Adventure Tourism Guidelines along with Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Tourism; Satyajeet Rajan, Director General, Tourism; Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Tourism and Swadesh Kumar, President, Adventure Tourism Association of India (ATOAI). A total of 26 activities have been covered in the guidelines including land, air and water based activities. The guidelines have been put in place to make the unorganised sector to adopt them. These guidelines will be reviewed every three months. In an effort to make adventure sports safer, the set of guidelines lists out the basic minimum standards required for adventure tourism activities in India. Adventure tourism has grown rapidly over the past few years playing a vital role in the economic growth of India as well as attracting a large number of travellers from across the globe to the country. The sole aim is to help adventure tour operators understand and execute safety guidelines in a better manner. These guidelines cover activities like mountaineering, trekking, bungee jumping, paragliding, kayaking, scuba diving, snorkelling, river rafting and many other sports.

Tourism Fiji has appointed actor Ileana D’Cruz as its brand ambassador for the India market. Following a successful collaboration with the Bollywood celebrity in 2017, Tourism Fiji now aims to showcase more of its offerings to travellers from India through more engagements with her. As part of this engagement, D’Cruz will be travelling to Fiji in April this year to experience more activities. For year ending December 2017, Fiji saw 30 per cent increase in arrivals from India as compared to 2016. Faiyaz Siddiq Koya, Fijian Minister for Industry, Trade, Tourism, Lands and Mineral Resources, said, “India is a key emerging market for Fiji and we have been receiving steady positive growth in visitor arrival numbers from India over the past five years. Fiji and India share an age old connection with over 40 per cent of Fiji’s population being of Indian origin. With D’Cruz as our brand ambassador, we hope to get more Indians to come and experience the diverse culture of our island country.”

The Cyprus Convention Bureau facilitated the meeting of its local partners with tour operators and event planners from India at Limassol during an educational trip to Cyprus. About 14 suppliers from Cyprus were led by Michalis Metaxes, Director, Tourism, Cyprus Tourism Organisation. Indian agents from Mumbai and New Delhi toured around the key cities of Cyprus to inspect hotels and venues for clients. The five-day tour also included an exposure to the Cypriot culture.

Haveli Dharampura, Delhi, the property restored by Union Minister Vijay Goel, has been recognised by UNESCO 2017 for Cultural Heritage Conservation in Asia-Pacific region in 2017. He shared the news at the property situated in the heart of Chandni Chowk in Delhi in the presence of Rashmi Verma, Secretary Tourism, Government of India; Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Tourism, Government of India; Usha Sharma, DG, ASI. He said, “This has been possible due to sheer hardwork spanning six years in which took us to restore the haveli. We built it from scratch without distorting its original beauty and old-world charm, which continues to entice the visitors.”

Delhi was declared the consolidated winner in the area of travel and tourism, according to a state survey conducted by World Travel and Tourism Council India Initiative (WTTCII) and Hotelivate. The Capital bagged the Destination Leader Award after an evaluation of 11 key parameters including state expenditure on tourism, tourist visits, presence of branded hotel rooms, GSDP per capita, effectiveness of marketing campaign, urbanisation, road and railway infrastructure, aircraft movement, ease of doing business, and intangible aspects. While it did lag behind in some areas, Delhi aced in most of the categories. Since the Northeastern states did not fare well as compared to other states owing to limited road and air connectivity, Sikkim was declared the winner in terms of overall performance.

According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, destinations worldwide welcomed 901 million international tourist arrivals between January and August 2017, recording 56 million more than in the same period of 2016. This corresponds to a robust 7 per cent increase, well above the growth of previous years. With upbeat prospects for the remaining months of the year, 2017 is set to be the eighth consecutive year of continued solid growth for international tourism. South Asia (+10 per cent) led growth in Asia and the Pacific (+6 per cent), followed by South-East Asia (+8 per cent) and Oceania (+7 per cent). By UNWTO regions, growth was strongest in Africa (+9 per cent) and Europe (+8 per cent), followed by Asia and the Pacific (+6 per cent), according to a survey by experts for the UNWTO Confidence Index, who evaluated the May-August period very positively. “Tourism is a major economic engine and employment generator, contributing to the improvement of livelihoods of millions of people around the world,” stated UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai. Among the top 10 markets, international tourism expenditure grew fastest in China (+19 per cent), the Republic of Korea (+12 per cent), the United States (+8 per cent) and Canada (+7 per cent).

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.