Category Archives: MOT

Union Minister of State (I//C) for Culture and Tourism Prahlad Singh Patel virtually attended BRICS Tourism Ministers’ Meeting virtually. The meeting was held through video conference under Chairpersonship of Russian Federation.

Union Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (I/C), Prahlad Singh Patel, in a virtual meeting with tourism ministers and officials of 21 states & UTs discussed facilitating ease of travel between states & UTs for promoting domestic tourism and incentives being offered by them to the tourism and hospitality sector.

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism & Culture, will be having a virtual interaction with state/UT tourism ministers on October 15 and 16. The aim behind these meetings is to discuss post-COVID protocols and put plans in motion to ensure that the tourism sector opens up with safety measures in place. The Minister will be interacting with tourism ministers of the northern and western states and Union territories on October 15 and those of the southern, eastern and north-eastern states on October 16. These meetings will be in line with the meetings held with the tourism stakeholders in the last two months.

Meenakshi Sharma, DG, Tourism, has said that a lot of people in the tourism sector suffer from very low margins. “This raises the question whether we are selling ourselves too cheap or the services are not as promised. This makes it difficult to survive because there is not much scope left amidst too much competition. How do we assure travellers that India is not a destination of extremes — that we have the best luxury products but at the same time have something that can be sold much cheaper.”

Meenakshi Sharma, Director General, Tourism, has said that apart from coming out with the incentive schemes for tour operators in the form of MDA for promotions nationally or internationally, they are also relaxing the rules for approval of tour operators, so that the benefits can go to those who haven’t been involved with us and also for the start-ups. “This is because the promotion and marketing budget for the smaller formations are not burdened to them and the Government can pick up some of that tab,” she added, while addressing a CII Webinar recently.

Jitendra Jadhav, Asst. Director (Niche Tourism Division), Government of India, Ministry of Tourism, has said that the Ministry has been directed by Sectoral Group of Secretaries to form guidelines on wedding tourism. “For this, inputs of industry stakeholders such as ICPB and wedding planners including Rashi Entertainment have been sought. Rajeev Jain, MD, Raashi Entertainment has been instrumental in quickly providing us detailed inputs as sought from the industry. The proposed guidelines on wedding tourism/destination weddings are under process and is expected to be finalised soon by the Ministry after getting approval from competent authority,” he said.

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism & Culture, has said that 2021 should be the year of Dekho Apna Desh and the focus should be on domestic tourism. “The Prime Minister asked us to concentrate on ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ one year ago and that every citizen should visit 15 domestic destinations till 2022. However, now the time is such that in 2021 people will only travel within India, and this campaign would be really helpful for us. Year 2021 should be the year of Dekho Apna Desh and all of us should promote it with full force,” he said.

In his address on World Tourism Day, Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary – Tourism, said that this year’s global theme of rural tourism laid out by the UNWTO is in the right context and has come at the right time. “In a country as diverse as India where a significant number of people are deeply rooted to the villages, it is both an opportunity as well as a necessity that tourism develops itself and in turn develops rural communities. Rural tourism in India has significant potential, considering rich cultural and historical heritage, variety in ecology and terrains, as well as places of natural beauty spread across the country,” he said.

The World Tourism Day celebration by MOT this year will be different as the event would take place virtually. Sharing details of the same, Rupinder Brar, ADG, Tourism, said, “World Tourism Day 2020 celebration will happen differently this year. The new initiative- which endeavours to organise a PAN-India— SAATHI-System for Assessment, Awareness and Training for Hospitality Industry, will be launched. MOT will be showcasing a small audio-video clip on IITFC initiative by MOT. IITFC aims at employment generation at the PAN-India grass-root level. An AV will also be shown on the MICE potential of India. Since the focus this year is on domestic tourism, small snippets of the Dekho Apna Desh webinars will be showcased, MOT will be giving an e-certificate of participation for these webinars for the first participant.”

In a webinar organised by ITDC on the revival of the hotel industry, Rakesh Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism said that the first challenge for hotels and ministry after reopening of hotels to rebuild consumer confidence. “We have to jointly convince people that they have to trust the industry, otherwise the demand will not pick up,” he said.