Reema Lokesh – Mumbai
China’s president Xi Jinping’s visit to India has sparked new hopes for the tourism industry of the country. The Ministry of Tourism (MoT), Government of India is upbeat about India-China relationship with the announcement of the ‘Visit India Year’ 2015 in China made by the Chinese president during his visit to the country. To initiate this process, the MoT has taken certain policy decisions as on September 18, 2014 revealed a senior official from the tourism ministry while speaking exclusively to Express TravelWorld. The official opined that India is looking at China to be the leading source market over the next five years. For the same, the tourism ministry will be focusing on training guides as presently a Chinese guide charges 400 dollars a day. There are also plans to organise cultural shows in open spaces and city squares in place of small halls. The MoT will also be opening a website in Chinese.
Welcoming this decision, Rajeev Kohli, vice president, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) stated, “IATO welcomes this initiative and hopes to focus on high spending Chinese travellers. Although sentiments are positive, today the ground reality is different. We are hoping to improve the same and would like to focus on high spending Chinese travellers.”
