Akshay Kumar – Mumbai
Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) is developing a new mobile application for women safety. It is also developing a website which would promote the Bed and Breakfast (B&B) scheme as well as overall Maharashtra tourism. Speaking to Express TravelWorld at a function to celebrate World Tourism Day, Kishori Gadre, general manager, MTDC said, “We are creating a website which would promote the B&B scheme and also Maharashtra’s cultural and traditional tourism.”
With the objective of sensitising tourism fraternity and the public at large, MTDC has taken up the theme of women safety this year announcing various initiatives. Gadre said, “Maharashtra is still a safe place as compared to other regions. Still the women travellers have a feeling of insecurity and this can only be restored through changing the behaviour. Every person should have a positive approach towards women travellers and should behave in a decent manner. This can be promoted only through word of mouth and awareness.” She suggested developing a model for code of conduct and said that educating children right from school and college can have an immense impact on attitude towards women travellers. Commenting on the number of tourist arrivals into the state, she said, “The travel industry hasn’t suffered much in Maharashtra and the footfall of tourists has not shown much decrease.”
Krishna Prakash, IPS, additional commissioner of police, south region shared some views on how to increase women safety in the state which would increase the influx of tourists in Maharashra. Prakash said, “Safety is the first requirement for anything to flourish and tourism is no exception. We need a good coordination between police, MTDC, state tourism and the other bodies related to tourism to increase women safety. A special tourist police should be started to increase the safety of travellers,” he added.
