Tag Archives: tourism

Valsa Nair, Principal Secretary, Tourism, Excise & Civil Aviation Govt Of Maharashtra, said, “The policy that has really led the tourism revival in Maharashtra is the vacation rental policy, which was a new discovery in the COVID times. A lot of independent houses and farmhouses in the state have now been thrown open to tourists. While many are ordinary ones, some are exclusive and owned by HNIs. There are many categories and the prices have skyrocketed. There are also operators who are now running such homes. As government, we are in the final stages to make it easier for the tourists to book into these vacation homes and make it easier for the owners to ensure that the right tourists come. We are also building in the food and civil supplies department. We are also bringing in the police to ensure that these are exactly used for the right purposes. The vacation rental I think is going to be the backbone of tourism revival in Maharashtra.”

In a re-shuffle of the state cabinet, the Odisha government has posted Surendra Kumar, who was the Principal Secretary – Steel and Mines, in the General Administration department with the additional charge of the Tourism department as its Principal Secretary. Vishal Dev, who was the Principal Secretary of Tourism, Sports and Youth Affairs in the Odisha government, has been appointed as the new Principal Secretary of the Finance department.

Ajay Bhatt, Minister of State, Tourism, has said in a tweet that work on weather road to connect Char Dham is going on along with Rishikesh- Karnaprayag rail line. Apart from that, in Uttarakhand, renovation work of Kedarnath is also being carried out under the BJP Government in the state.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, has said that while the strategy for international marketing in terms of incentives, promotions and media campaigns will be similar, but it will change from 15th August, when we enter 75th year of Independence. “We’ll merge that kind of messaging or campaigns, which will be aimed at celebrating 75th year of India’s independence, with existing media strategies, as well as new schemes and programmes,” he said.

Ajay Bhatt, the newly appointed Minister of State, Tourism, took charge and shared that the priorities for him in the new role is to take the country forward and tourism sector at the top position. “We will take briefing and will come to know things clearly. Then, we would know what can be done about the issues and problems. The hotel industry is completely closed and small shops around tourist sites have been out of jobs, this include locals, rickshaws, taxis, guides, daily wagers, etc. All of them have faced problems. For them, the Government has created many schemes. Now that the situation is improving day by day, we hope to soon come back to the old level of tourism in India,” he said.

Thanking the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Tourism Minister for announcement of relief measures for the tourism sector and taking up issues concerning the industry, Rupinder Brar, ADG, Tourism, said, “We welcome the financial help for tourist guides and tour operators. It is also good that the recognised entities are being supported. The support that has come in terms of visa being announced free for the first 500,000 e-Tourist visas that will be applied for, will be a gamechanger. It sends a positive signal to the whole word that India is getting ready to open, the vaccination drive has picked up, number of cases are going down. Through this, we also want to send a message to the industry that please get recognised, so that you can be benefitted by any of the schemes of the government.”

Rupinder Brar, ADG, Tourism, has said that after the reopening of monuments, they will be promoting domestic tourism. “Just like last year, considering that domestic tourism will open first, the Dekho Apna Desh webinars, which have been temporarily put on hold, will also be restarted. As we get better inputs from local administrations as well as the central health ministry, we will be taking up more campaigns in the domestic markets.”

In an interaction with Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA, while speaking on opening borders in 2021, Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, said, “Yes, there will be some sort of reopening. It all depends on the result of vaccination programme in India and abroad. However, I am sure that at least there wold be a partial opening of some regions of the world in this calendar year.”

Talking about the GST refund for international travellers, Rupinder Brar, ADG, Tourism, revealed that as part of the statute, it has already been brought under the GST statute. “We have to wait for international travel to resume for putting the pilot in place. India also has GST refund for inbound travellers as a statutory provision, just like getting a VAT refund in some countries. Just before COVID happened, there was progress made in terms of enabling it, but because we had to shut our borders to inbound tourists, running a pilot wouldn’t have made sense. People need to travel in the country and shop,” she added.

Meenakshi Sharma, DG, Tourism, will be moving from Ministry of Tourism, according to a circular by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. She will now be joining the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and will be availing promotion. She will join as Additional Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General. Sharma joined MOT in May 2016as ADG and was promoted as DG in May 2019.