BENGALURU: The government has deployed tourism officers in 20 Indian missions abroad to promote and brand Indian tourism products and destinations, Union tourism, culture and DoNER minister G Kishen Reddy said on Thursday.
“The Ministry of External Affairs, on the request of the tourism ministry, has appointed dedicated tourism officers in 20 Indian missions abroad. This will help in further branding, promoting India’s culture and heritage in these countries,” Reddy said, on the sidelines of the conference of tourism and culture ministers from the southern states in Bengaluru, the first such gathering of culture and tourism ministers.
He also said the ministry will devise a plan on how other ministries involved in this initiative can work in synergy.
“Through this initiative, branding and promotion can be done by writing articles in magazines and other publications, and via other means so that brand Incredible India can be promoted more effectively,” Reddy added.
On Wednesday, the Union tourism minister had tweeted about the decision and thanked External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. He informed that India now has tourism officers identified in 20 missions abroad where we have large tourist footfalls. Countries such as Singapore, Oman, Japan and USA were listed among the twenty.
In his tweet, he had also shared a letter dated October 21 from the MEA, which mentioned the countries where these officers have been designated.
These countries include Australia, Canada, China, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Japan, the UK and the US, according to the letter shared in his tweet.
Addressing a two-day conference of tourism and culture ministers of southern India in Bengaluru on Thursday, the Union tourism minister also said the aim of the initiative was to connect all states and get them talking to the ministry and its various arms for problem solving and to develop new programmes around the government’s priority programmes like the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav under the culture ministry and the Swadesh Darshan scheme under the tourism ministry. He said the conference will help apprise various stakeholders about the projects and initiatives being taken by the Centre for the development of the region.
He emphasised the government’s efforts to ramp up on infrastructure, on-ground capacity, and skills and said that under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme, which focuses on integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits, the Ministry has sanctioned 15 projects in Southern States worth Rs. 1088 crores. “Under the PRASHAD scheme (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spirituality Augmentation Drive), the Ministry has sanctioned 6 projects in the region that amounts to 15% of the entire scheme budget”, he said.
In his speech at the conference, he also asserted that there can be no bigger confidence booster for the revival of tourism than vaccination against Covid-19.
He exhorted the southern states and UTs to effectively take part in the Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav.
“India’s civilisation heritage goes back to many thousands of years and this ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ is also an opportunity to pay a tribute to all those people that fought for the preservation of our heritage,” he added.
Tourism and culture ministers and officials of Telangana, Kerala, Pudducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshwadweep also participated in the two day conference and highlighted the impact of corona on tourism in states and future programmes.
Reddy said that as a next step, his ministry would host tourism and culture ministers of all states in a conference to further discuss issues and programmes in Kevadiya, Gujarat. A date for the programme has not been fixed yet, he said.