FAITH awaits MoT’s nod for GET India 2016
Reema Lokesh – New Delhi
The general mood seems to be rather sombre amidst India’s inbound tour operators as business has witnessed a dip in recent times, according to the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH). The association disclosed that key positions in as many as 10 Indian overseas tourist offices have been vacant since a couple of years, out of 14 offices worldwide. The list shared by FAITH reveals that vital offices like Tokyo, Japan; Sydney, Australia; New York, USA; Dubai wait for the post of regional director to be filled in, while, London, UK; Beijing, China; Los Angeles, USA; Paris, Singapore and Amsterdam have the post of director lying vacant. Speaking strongly on this matter, Sarab Jit Singh, vice chairman of FAITH said, “This is rather unfortunate. Practically, India is not visible and is out of the market place in several countries. The tour operators have had bad experiences, while dealing with tourist offices or Indian embassies. Moreover, selling India is a cumbersome process for any tour operator in comparison to selling other destinations. Ministry of Tourism (MoT) needs to urgently look into this and use the budget allocated for overseas tourism promotion effectively.”
Singh has been persistent in his request to get the MoT support to successfully conduct the second edition of Global Exhibition on Tourism (GET) India, a mega buyer seller meet, an initiative which has already received support from the ministry of commerce, Government of India. The team has submitted a detailed plan to Vinod Zutshi, secretary-tourism, Government of India on how the event will strengthen the inbound tourism business of India, which is witnessing a visible dip in terms of international tourist arrivals for 2015. In his letter to MoT, Singh stated, “For tourism to grow it is vital for crucial departments in the Government of India to work in co-operation. Apart from the required support from MoT and the ministry of commerce we hope that other departments partner with FAITH to make GET India 2016 a noteworthy tourism buyer-seller meet.” There are 14 more ministries that FAITH is looking to partner with including ministry of external affairs, ministry of home affairs, ministry of civil aviation, and others.
Express TravelWorld made efforts to contact MoT to get their views on this matter, but did not get a response till the time of going to press.