Tag Archives: Vinod Zutshi

The Ministry of Tourism is planning theme based events for attracting tourists in the country, revealed Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, while addressing he members of Indian Association of Tour Operators in New Delhi. He said, “We are working on theme based events in India in the next six months. We have shortlisted three themes—medical tourism, adventure tourism and MICE tourism. We want to create a buzz about India and partner with FICCI or some other organisation and organise an international event, to attract the world’s attention to the country. However, we will focus on only one such event this year.”

An Investment Desk will be set up by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) and Invest India to facilitate investment for tourism, revealed Vinod Zutshi, Secretary-Tourism, Govt. Of India at the Tourism Investors Summit 2016. In his keynote speech, he stressed that with tourism in India facing exponential growth, the infrastructure needs to be amped up to be on par. This year, foreign tourist arrivals in the country have been growing at an average of 8-9 per cent. With tourism occupying a 12.36 per cent employment share and a 6.88 per cent contribution to GDP, Zutshi stated that the core infrastructure – road, rail, air, and waterways, needs new additions as well as renovation.

The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) is all set to hold Bharat Parva from Aug 12-18 in line with the Independence Day celebrations. Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Tourism, Government of India, revealed, “We are hosting a Bharat Parva at the India Gate Rajpath Lawns and it is part of the India Independence Day Celebration from August 12-18.  The Tourism Ministry will organise the same and we are going to bring in lots of attractions for the people. The idea is to create a festive and patriotic mood and involve people. We will have state pavilions and they are very excited about the same. The festival will have cuisines, food court, handicrafts and cultural programmes from all states on all the days. We’ve also involved local, state and regional associations based in Delhi for the festival as well.”

India Tourism is the Premier Partner for World Travel Market London 2016, as it looks to promote the diverse tourism product the country offers. Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, said, “India is privileged to be Premier Partner of WTM London 2016. The event is the perfect platform to promote the diverse tourism products the country has to offer, from cultural heritage to beaches, cruises, eco-tourism, medical tourism and religious tourism and to showcase that India is truly “Incredible”. “There is an ever-increasing amount of new and exciting products to educate the world’s leading buyers about. WTM London is an event when the Indian tourism stakeholders get to meet the world’s buyers and sign business agreements. The Ministry of Tourism and the Indian exhibitors look forward to a very successful WTM London 2016.”The Indian Government has in the last 18 months invested more than $300 million on developing its tourism infrastructure around the country as it aims for more than 13 million visitors a year by 2020. India is experiencing a 10 per cent annual growth in foreign tourist arrivals this year taking visitor numbers to a projected nine million in 2016. The Ministry of Tourism will be looking to speak to WTM Buyers’ Club members from its key source markets of the USA, UK, China, Australia, France, Germany, Canada and Spain as well as the growing markets of South East Asia, the Middle East and Russia. The key to India’s strategy is also to focus on a variety of products including heritage, cultural, rural, wellness, medical, adventure, and golf. A special focus is being put on coastal and beach tourism, cruise and eco-tourism. The government is developing …

As part of the action plan, the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) will launch an aggressive marketing strategy to enlist more bed and breakfast establishments to the Incredible India Bed & Breakfast /Home Stay Scheme and involve online travel agents in its promotion. Rationalisation of taxes and simplification of procedures will be addressed to move towards ease of doing business while groups were constituted to study various aspects of this scheme and submit recommendations in a time bound manner. Through this action plan, MOT aims to fill the desired additional hotel capacity and give impetus to establishments run by the central and state government as well as those run by OTAs since construction of hotels has a long gestation period. This was imparted by Vinod Zutshi, Secretary – Tourism, at MOT’s workshop  on Incredible India Bed & Breakfast /Home Stay Scheme held on 30th May 2016. The workshop was attended by officials from MOT and various State Governments, representatives from the hospitality and the travel trade industry and CEOs of OTAs.

Vinod Zutshi, Secretary – Tourism, Govt. of India, expects inbound tourism to flourish in 2016 after witnessing a growth of 6.8 per cent in Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) during January 2016. “We are aiming at a 10 per cent growth in FTAs this year. February 2016 alone received a total of 1,17,210 tourists visiting India on e-Tourist Visa (eTV), recording a growth of 369.1 per cent month on month- the effects of eTV will be observed this year.” Commenting on the expansion of domestic tourism Zutshi added that it would grow even further in the coming years. “Domestic tourism has flourished immensely. We had about 1.45 billion domestic tourist visits in 2015 and expect a 15 growth this year. Additionally, we are aiming to reach 2.2 billion domestic tourist visits by 2019.”

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Ministry of Tourism, Govt. Of India and the Ecotourism Society of India (ESOI) to propagate the cause of responsible and sustainable tourism to the next level. Vinod Zutshi, Secretary – Tourism, said, “ESOI works towards promoting sustainable and responsible tourism practices so we have joined hands with them since our agendas are the same. ESOI will partner with us and assist in sensitising the travel trade first, and then the general public.” It was also announced that a 10-year road map for advocacy and certification under the Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India will be charted. Steve Borgia, Honorary President, ESOI, said, “This MoU is also going to set a plan-of-action for the next 10 years for sustainable and responsible tourism.  The planning needs to be aggressive. Regional workshops will also be organised at various cities all over India with different guidelines for each destination.” ESOI, through stakeholder consultations will formulate criteria and classification guidelines for certification for the accommodation and tour/travel operators within the STCI guidelines and later develop standards for destinations which will also be in sync with the internationally accepted Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. The two bodies previously formulated and published the Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI) and plan to put these practices to the forefront through the MoU.

Vinod Zutshi, IAS, Secretary, MOT, Govt of India, said, “MOT is contemplating on organising a Mega Tourism Investor’s Summit around July/August this year for promoting investments in tourism sector. The summit will witness participation of all important states coming with their incentives and packages. The summit will provide to the private investment, stakeholders within India and abroad a chance to cease the immense opportunity of investment in the tourism sector in India.” He said, “I urge all stakeholders to make use of this forthcoming Mega Summit to help us promote Incredible India and Make in India.” Speaking at the launch of the ‘Swachh Parayatan Mobile App’, Zutshi said tourism in 2016 has began on an optimistic note and the Ministry of Tourism is committed to carry on its juggernauts of new initiatives and drives in the coming days. International Branding and promotional campaign has begun. He added, “The forthcoming financial year will see a more aggressive marketing and promotional campaign from Incredible India all over the world. MOT has sanctioned tourism infrastructure projects over Rs 1,500 crore, in the past six months, which shall continue in the forthcoming financial year. We are hopeful that huge public investment of this nature will trigger and promote private sector investments in the tourism sector.”

In a bid to boost medical tourism into India, the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, is planning to extend e-medical visa facility, said Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Tourism, Government of India. Speaking on the recently held first meeting of National Medical and Wellness Tourism Promotion Board, he said, “India has a distinct advantage, in terms of cost of people in the medical industry, the time required for getting operation dates, and having state-of-the-art hospitals. Now, we are also contemplating to get the e-medical visa facility extended to various countries, so that the medical and wellness tourism in India prospers further.”