Connecting in Chandigarh

By On Nov 6, 2013 0

With an aim to meet the challenges of the tourism and hospitality sector, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Northern Region in partnership with all the northern state governments is organising the CII Tourism Fest 2013 to increase and attract tourism and investment to make a greater contribution towards the country’s GDP. The CII Tourism Fest 2013 is being held from December 5 – 7, 2013. According to Arjun Sharma, chairman, CII Tourism Fest 2013 and managing director, Le Passage to India, in 2012 the tourism sector contributed US$ 6.6 trillion to the world economy, creating 300 million jobs and US$ 800 billion investments. India accounts for 0.06 per cent of the world’s tourism share which speaks volume on the scope for business. There is a continuous need for innovation, sustainable growth and tourism policies to be developed in this sector,” he said.

Arjun Sharma

The three day fest will include international food festival, golf tournament, international dance festival and international chef’s meet apart from a Chief Minister’s Forum, conferences, sessions and expositions. In the Chief Minister’s Forum, the chief minister of northern states and the minister of tourism, government of India will be discussing issues such as synergisation between Central and State government; inter state tourism infrastructure development; issues related to finance and taxation; future road map; and other important issues. The forum will then be followed by the inaugural session. The major focus and objective of the conference will be to create an ideal platform for the tourism and hospitality fraternity to explore business opportunities and develop bilateral relationship between domestic stakeholders and foreign counterparts; to attract investments and create jobs in the tourism and hospitality sector; to organise focused sessions by the state government highlighting initiatives; to discuss investment policies announced by the participating states; to give an opportunity to the investors to raise their concerns with the tourism minister/secretaries of the participating states; to enable the holidaying population of the region to reach out to new destinations around the world; to engage the people of the region towards overall development of the industry; and to promote rural tourism, natural tourism, wedding tourism, agriculture and organic tourism.

The event is expected to host 5000 attendees which will include participants from international countries like Philippines, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Canada and Turkey. Within India the participating states will be Punjab, Gujarat, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi, Puducherry, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The visitors profile would include domestic travel agents and tour operators; Central and state government tourist officials; delegates from IATA, PATA, ADTOI, ATTOI, TAAI, ETAA, IATO, UNWTO, FHRAI and HRANI; industry experts from the hospitality and tourism sector; and international business delegates of various tourism boards and embassies.

The key highlights of the fest would include a paper on Seamless Tourism presented by KPMG; CII Golf Tourism Cup to be held at Forest Hill Resort, Mohali; international dance festival on Global Peace, Harmony and Connect to be held with the theme ‘Dance your way to God’; CII Chef’s Meet at Parade Ground and the Chief Minister’s Forum. One on one business meetings and post event tours will be organised for the delegation from countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Germany, Finland, Philippines and China to give them an idea of the region with a major focus on eco, rural and winter tourism.

Steps undertaken for the development of infrastructure in the city

Upgradation of Chandigarh airport to international standards is under implementation with the first step of transfering 8.5 acres land to AAI
Nehru Centre for Performing Arts is being set up in Sector 34. Chandigarh will also have the facility of an international convention centre and theatres
Rejuvenation of the City Centre, Sector 17 is being undertaken through multi level parking, relaying of the floors of main plaza, creating provision of tourist information centres etc
A Botanical Garden is being developed on 178 acres of land in Sarangpur, which will consist of 15 botanical sections and other features to promote eco tourism.
Three lakes, two along Patiala ki Rao and one along Sukhna Choe are being undertaken, as a part of environmental related initiatives
Completion of Sub City Centre in Sector 34 will further boost the commercial activity of the city
A state of the art Entrepreneurs Development Centre is coming up on a 1.5 acre plot at a cost of Rs 16 crore, which will have plug and play facilities for upcoming entrepreneurs

Talking about the CII Tourism fest 2013, Guldeep Singh Sahni, president, OTOAI (Outobund Tour Operators Association of India) said, “One of the key reasons for organising the event in Chandigarh was because currently most of the customers travelling abroad are not only coming from metros but also from tier II and tier III cities. With this kind of a development it seemed important to highlight such cities by organising such events. Also Chandigarh being one of the cities located in the heart of the northern region of the country is easily accessible with good infrastructure suited for all categories. Even though today inbound tourism and domestic tourism have a lot of scope, outbound tourism will be the one facing maximum growth. Challenges such as visa issues, price variations and confusion of taxes needs major attention due to lack of clear government policies. The tourism industry needs to find out solutions to these issues.”

Chandigarh has attracted an average of 8,29,093 domestic tourists and 33,629 foreign tourists during 2008-09. This has created an immense opportunity for the hospitality and tourism industry to witness a continuous growth since then.