Rai Umraopati Ray
A lot of experts say that India has missed the bus post-pandemic to showcase its tourism offerings to the global travellers while other countries have launched spectacular campaigns?
We are also going to launch our campaign sometime in January next year. We have finalised our plans and strategy for promotions. The National Tourism Board is part of the strategy and for implementing the marketing and promotional campaigns. It will cover different channels and the focus will be on country-specific strategies and on digital platforms. We are launching the Visit India 2023 initiative soon, which will position and strengthen India’s position as a 360-days destination.
Can you please elaborate on the Visit India 2023 initiative?
The tourism sector in India is growing fast and gearing up to meet the emerging trends post-pandemic. Therefore to encourage our inbound travel and particularly in the background of our Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav and the G20 presidency of India, the Ministry of Tourism has decided to celebrate the upcoming year as Visit India 2023. We will work with our partners, travel and trade industry, state tourism boards, and key stakeholders to invite people to visit India from across the world. The focus is on inbound travel to India, to highlight varied tourism offerings of our country and showcase them to the global tourism industry stakeholders. India is sharing its priorities for the tourism sector, which include focusing on promoting sustainable tourism, digitalization of the tourism sector, and development of tourism MSMEs and skills. India is a land of culture, heritage and spirituality with every state having its own unique tourism offerings to the world. India’s G-20 Presidency from December 2022 to November 2023 will help India’s tourism sector to highlight the country’s tourism offerings and share our tourism success stories on a global stage.
Will Indian embassies, offices and missions be involved in this initiative? What will be the key focus?
Yes, as part of our new strategy for marketing and promotions, missions abroad have a very key role in making Visit India 2023 a successful campaign.
As said earlier, our focus is now to make India as a 365-days destination and our offerings are multifarious and we would like to highlight the multiple offerings of our country. India is a huge country and we have all kinds of tourism products and experiences.
Domestic tourism has come up in a big way but there are challenges of infrastructure, safety of women travellers, lack of facilities etc., how is the Ministry of Tourism tackling this?
The Ministry of Tourism is working with all relevant ministries and government agencies which have influence and impact on tourism. We are trying to create synergies in their efforts and the requirements of the tourism sector. We are hopeful that both the infrastructure and other framework conditions that you call for the growth of tourism will improve and they are drastically improving.
Any special proposal to the Ministry of Finance for the upcoming budget 2023?
In terms of pandemic, I think there are enough steps already taken and the hospitality sector was well covered with a focus on tourism. Presently, we are now working on National Tourism Policy and for implementation of the policy, we will go to the other ministries for support including the finance ministry.
As chairman of ICPB, what are your plans to boost MICE tourism in India?
We are looking at strategies across tourism offerings and MICE is another segment where India has huge potential. We need to really exploit that potential by coming out with a national strategy and we are working on it. MICE is an important part of National Tourism Policy and we have already worked out a plan for the promotion of MICE.
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