ETW Staff – New Delhi
India and Japan have resolved to strengthen cooperation in the tourism sector. This was decided at a meeting between Hiroshi Kajiyama, Japanese senior vice minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism who recently visited India and minister of state for tourism, Dr KChiranjeevi. The two sides agreed to move further on signing an agreement/MOU to promote bilateral tourism relations.
Dr Chiranjeevi informed his Japanese counterpart about the various measures being taken to improve golf tourism and MICE tourism in India, which may be attractive to Japanese tourists and businessmen. He invited Japan to invest in the low budget hotel sector where India has liberalised the FDI route. Dr Chiranjeevi told Kajiyama there was a good potential for budget hotels for tourists coming from across the world to India. Kajiyama said that the proposal for investments in the budget hotel sector could form a part of the MOU between the two countries.
Kajiyama said that he would like to lead a delegation of businessmen from Japan in the next meeting in which he hoped to conclude the agreement/MOU with India. Kajiyama informed that two Japanese airlines are operating daily flights between India and Japan, which is an indication of the gravity of tourist traffic between countries. Japan has set for itself a target of attracting 10 million visitors from across the world to Japan.
Japan Tourism is organising a world class two-day India-Japan Tourism Expo in New Delhi in January, 2014. Kajiyama has requested Dr Chiranjeevi to cooperate in organising the expo.
