Ministry of Tourism, Government of India on Monday, April 24, 2023, said it plans to develop 50 new tourist destinations across the country with a focus on green tourism. Tourism Ministry was also exploring promotion of digitalization, skill development, promotion of MSMEs and destination management, Union Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh said.
“We are taking a 360-degree view of developing the tourism infrastructure with focus on enhancing rail, road, and Air connectivity. We have recommended 59 new routes to the Ministry of Civil Aviation under the Udaan Scheme, which is very successful and out of these 51 Tourism routes have already been operationalized.”
UDAN is a regional airport development program and part of the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) of upgrading under-serviced air routes. Its goal is to make air travel affordable.
The minister was speaking during inaugural session of G20 Tourism Expo organized by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India along with FICCI and Department of Tourism, Government of Rajasthan.
Singh said that India’s tourism sector is showing one of the strongest recoveries in the Asia-Pacific region post-pandemic.
“Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, India registered 6.19 million foreign Tourists arrivals in 2022 registering a growth of 305 per cent as compared to 1.52 million in 2021. To promote tourism further, we plan to promote green tourism and open 50 new tourism destinations and launch publicity in overseas market,” he said.
Tourism Ministry was also exploring promotion of digitalization, skill development, promotion of MSMEs and destination management, Singh added.
Vishwendra Singh, Minister of Tourism, Government of Rajasthan informed that the state government plans to revive 23 old air-strips spread all over Rajasthan which will give boost to tourism sector in the state.
Delivering his inaugural address at G20 Tourism Expo, Singh said, “Under our newly introduced Rural Tourism policy, we are going to re-develop 23 air-strips with private sector support. This will provide a big impetus to tourism in Rajasthan, especially in rural areas and create humongous employment opportunities.”
“Rajasthan has also formed a path-breaking Rural Tourism policy which other states should emulate. The policy is expected to boost wildlife tourism, cultural and religious tourism across the state,” added Singh.
Enumerating the initiatives taken by Rajasthan Government, Smt. Gayatri Rathore, Principal Secretary – Tourism, Art & Culture, Government of Rajasthan said, “Rajasthan is home to about 75 per cent of heritage properties in India, many of which have been renovated and restored through public private partnership and are now being used for royal-weddings and film shoots. Our department has recently formulated Rural Tourism Scheme to promote Tourism in rural Rajasthan and create employment opportunity.”
Being held after a gap of three years, GITB saw over 11,000 B2B meetings by 283 tour operators from 56 countries, including G20 countries, with the representatives of Tourism Boards from 11 states namely – Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, apart from Rajasthan along with more than 290 Indian Exhibitors.
