With around 20 investment MoUs signed at the inaugural ceremony of the Vibrant Gujarat International Travel Mart, Gujarat is all set to push the envelope to increase tourist numbers with a little help from the Central government and the PPP model By Steena Joy
The fourth edition of ‘Vibrant Gujarat International Travel Mart’ (VGITM) was inaugurated by Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel. In her inaugural speech, the CM stated, “This year around 50 countries including USA, England, Canada, Australia, Italy, Japan, etc and 20 states of the country participated in this edition of VGITM. The number of national and international buyers has also increased to 285 in this edition compared to 114 in 2011. Local sellers have also increased from 80 to 225. The state tourism sector has got the status of industry in the tourism policy and as a result around 50 investors have shown interest for investment of about Rs 3,000 crore. We have trained as many as 600 guides with a view to provide proper guidance to visitors arriving at various tourism places in Gujarat. The state government has also provided various training programmes to 4,500 people willing to join the hospitality sector.” Patel released a coffee table book named ‘Gujarat Tourism through the Land of Art and Craft’ and a Tourism Roadmap prepared by Yes Bank.
Organised by the Government of Gujarat and Tourism Corporation of Gujarat (TCGL) in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) at Mahatma Mandir Convention Centre in Gandhinagar, VGITM witnessed the signing of 20 MoUs at the opening ceremony itself with many more signed during the course of the 4500 B2B meetings which took place over the two days of the travel mart.
The ministry of tourism, Government of India, also announced the launch of the Swatchh Smarak Swatchh Bharat mobile app as part of its Clean India Clean Monuments initiative. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Vinod Zutshi, secretary tourism, Government of India, announced that the Smarak Pariyatan mobile app has been launched in association with The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). “The app will allow tourists and visitors to click pictures of unclean tourist areas, garbage, etc near 25 monuments covered under Adarsh Smarak and then post them on the app. The nodal officers of ASI will then attend to the complaint and inform the complainant of the action taken,” Zutshi added. He also informed that the ministry has set up the Incredible India information cum helpline on a toll free number to provide information and assist tourists. The service will be available in English as well as many foreign languages. He also added that the MoT has earmarked Rs 100 crore for Gujarat under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme and Rs 30 crore for Dwarka under the PRASAD scheme.
At the VGITM, Gujarat government also launched the Hello Innovators website (http://www.gujarattourism.com/innovators) to incentivise innovation in tourism projects, to establish an innovation culture and foster innovation in tourism in the state through special financial assistance including promotion and marketing support to innovative tourism projects. Innovative tourism projects must meet any one of the following criterias:
- Technologically introduced first time in the state
- Significant leveraging of Information Technology
- Having negligible carbon footprint.
For projects with investment between Rs one crore and 10 crore and employing 30 persons, the incentive amount would be Rs five lakh and for projects with investment between Rs 10 crore and Rs 50 crore and employing 50 people, the quantum of assistance is Rs 10 lakh.
Finance, power and tourism minister, Saurabhbhai Patel said that Gujarat is becoming a popular tourism place not only for Indian tourists but also for worldwide tourists. “Under the very attractive Tourism Policy announced by our CM, we are offering lots of incentives for building new hotels and we will also help to promote the destinations which the investors are developing,” he said. He pointed out the potential in domestic tourism saying, “We have a lot of spending power within the state. Gujaratis love to travel, so we must tap this potential.”
Ashok Panda, tourism minister of Odisha who was also present said Gujarat and Odisha shared many cultural, religious and geographical similarities. Another guest, the high commissioner of Malawi to India, Dr Mbuya Isaac G Munlo invited Gujaratis for developing business-employment in his country. Pankaj Patel, senior vice president, FICCI said that the partnership between FICCI and Gujarat Tourism will be long lasting.