Archana Sharma – New Delhi
With an objective of initiating high level discussions about issues like safety of domestic and international tourists and opportunities pertaining to the Indian tourism sector, The National Conference of Tourism Ministers, chaired by Shripad Naik, minister of tourism, Government of India with chief guest Arun Jaitley, union minister for finance and defence, was held at ITC Maurya, New Delhi. Organised as part of the 100 days action plan of the government, Naik stated, “India has seen a growth in the international sector by nine per cent in June and 12.9 per cent in July 2014.”
Apart from raising the issues of simplification of hotel classification and rationalising of tax structure, Naik announced that the e-visa scheme will be rolled out by October 2014. According to the plan, the e-visa facility will be extended to all countries except 10 nations including Pakistan, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Somalia, in a phased manner for different countries.
Emphasising on the cleanliness of prominent places with tourism significance, Naik announced a new category to be added in its National Tourism Awards. “From 2016, awards will be given to three cleanest destinations and three cleanest cities excelling in maintenance of the tourism sites, based on a cleanliness index evolved by the ministry.”
Talking about the creation of tourist police force for safety of tourists, Parvez Diwan, secretary, Ministry of Tourism (MoT), stated, “So far 12 states have created exclusive tourist police. Uttar Pradesh has also announced that they will begin with Agra, Banaras, Lucknow and expand it further.”
The government also plans to develop skills of the hospitality sector. Earlier this month, the government entered into a partnership with Lausanne Hospitality Consultancy (LHC), a subsidiary of Switzerland-based Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne.
Talking about the future plans, Naik said, “In the budget, it was announced that about 50 mega circuits have been allotted for this year.” With an aim to ensuring safety of tourists, the government will set up a 24×7 tourist information line and contact centre to help provide knowledge about India.
At the conference, the state and UT departments of tourism adopted a set of resolution which include safety of tourists, especially women travellers, capacity assessment of various tourism destinations, especially religious destinations, on the basis of the principles of environmental sustainability, increasing bed and breakfast scheme to augment budget accommodation and focus on imparting knowledge of foreign languages to officials. Naik also announced that from next year, the conference will be a two day affair.
