As part of its efforts to boost the sector, the Tourism Ministry has decided to announce policy initiatives for promotion of innovative programmes like 'caravan' and 'heliport tourism' in its 100-day agenda.
The new government, it seems, wants to change the face of the tourism sector.
In view of the enormous potential of health tourism in creating jobs and raking in foreign exchange, ministries of health and tourism on Wednesday decided to get started by setting up a Web site and a database.
"The minister along with a delegation of stakeholders in tourism will meet the PM shortly to seek his intervention to give a boost to tourism sector in the country," sources close to Sahay said.
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Relaxation in visa regime with introduction of visa-on-arrival enabling electronic travel authorisation (ETA) for 43 countries was a high point for the Tourism Ministry in 2014.
The proposal for setting up a National Tourism Promotion Board seems to have become unviable with stakeholders showing reluctance in accepting a parallel authority when Department of Tourism was doing the same task.
With this allocation of portfolios, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP has got most of the 'plum' ministries.
Data for the first nine days of January shows that tourist arrivals from India to the Maldives has been at similar levels as last year during the same period.
The finance ministry on Wednesday reimposed expenditure curbs on ministries and government departments for July-September quarter. There will be no spending restrictions on the ministries of health, rural development, agriculture, MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) and railways as part of a two-pronged strategy. "The existing guidelines for expenditure control have been reviewed. "Keeping in view the evolving situation arising out of Covid-19 and anticipated cash position of the government, it is felt essential to regulate Quarterly Expenditure Plan (QEP)/Monthly Expenditure Plan (MEP) of specific ministries/departments for July-September, 2021," the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry said in a notification.
In a bid to support revival of sectors hit most by the Covid-19 pandemic, Reserve Bank of India on Friday decided to open a separate liquidity window of Rs 15,000 crore for certain contact-intensive sectors like hotels and restaurants, tourism and aviation ancillary services.
The government will soon give infrastructure status to the tourism sector, enabling hotels to get cheaper loans for new projects, said a senior government official.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led central government will use the unorganised workers database - e-Shram portal - to provide the benefits of various government programmes to the nearly 300 million workers over the next five years, if it is voted to power for the third consecutive term in the upcoming general elections. "We have registered unorganised workers on the e-Shram platform. "We will reach out to the e-Shram registered 'shramik bandhu' and help them avail the benefits of various government programmes that they are eligible for," the manifesto of the party read.
Nangiohbok Rymbai, a graduate in economics who works as a daily wage labourer in Shillong, tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar what he would like to see in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget.
Having failed to receive even a lukewarm response to the open tender for marketing India as a tourist destination overseas, the ministry of tourism has decided to extend the deadline by over a fortnight to mid-August.
As part of the guidelines of the code, the signatories are encouraged to assist the tourists.
In a statement on Sunday, the Maldivian foreign ministry said they were aware of the "derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals".
The tourism industry expects a short-term impact, as it is counting on the state's proven expertise in managing such crises.
Modi said India's next general elections will be held in 2024 and he invited G20 delegates to visit the country to witness the "festival of democracy" in the "mother of democracy".
The BJP in its policy document stated that tourism plays a key role in socio-economic progress through creation of jobs.
Foreign tourist arrivals continued to dip despite the Visit India 2009 scheme launched by the government offering several concessions to woo tourists.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to the attendees of the Kashi Tamil Sangamam in Varanasi with his speech being translated for the audience in real-time using artificial intelligence.
'It is flabbergasting to think that this heavenly region has, for decades, been coveted by India's aggressive neighbours,' says Claude Arpi after a recent visit to Ladakh. 'Wanting to use the newly created infrastructure to defend the borders after the clash of 2020 with China and the resulting standoffs, the home ministry is keen to boost border tourism to show that these areas are controlled by India.'
In a bid to attract holiday makers from abroad, India has launched a major tourism promotion campaign at the ITB Berlin, the world's largest travel trade show.
Petrol and diesel prices were cut by Rs 2 per litre each as state-owned oil companies ended a nearly two-year-long hiatus in rate revision, just hours before the general election schedule was announced.
India earned over Rs 3.22 lakh crore (Rs 3.22 trillion) worth of foreign exchange through tourism.
The fund will be used to restore and reconstruct the government tourist facilities
The Maldives Jumhooree Party (JP) leader Qasim Ibrahim called on Maldivian President Mohammed Muizzu to formally apologize to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the people of India, Voice of Maldives, a Maldivian digital news outlet, reported.
In the next 25 years, the Mumbai port will need five terminals because the current passenger traffic of 200,000 is expected to climb to 4 million.
The Budget is likely to expand the scope of LTA and LTC.
The ministry of tourism is less concerned about the impact of the floods on life and property, but is more focused on promoting tourism, says Swathi Seshadri. Anupam Chakravartty reports
A Supreme Court-constituted panel has asked the Union environment ministry to amend or withdraw the guidelines related to setting up zoos and safaris within tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries to discourage the use of wildlife habitats for tourism activities which are non-site specific.
With the surge in tourist footfalls to Varanasi in 2022, it almost rivals the arrivals in Agra and puts it way ahead of Prayagraj and Ayodhya.
With a double-digit growth in the foreign tourist arrivals, 2010 was otherwise a good year for the ministry.
"Foreign tourist arrivals have increased considerably in the recent years from about 3.46 million in 2004 to 5.08 million in 2007. During January and July 2008, the FTA was around 3.14 million as compared to 2.38 million during the corresponding period of previous year," Prabhakar Dubey, director in the ministry, said at a conference in Shillong. Along with FTAs, the number of domestic tourists have also risen from 366 million in 2004 to 526 million last year.
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