Bangalore- Union Minister of Tourism, Culture & DoNER G. Kishan Reddy addressed the inauguration session of two days’ conference of Tourism and Culture Ministers of the Southern Region today in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Minister of State, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and and MoS in Ministry of Information & Broadcasting Dr. L. Murugan; Minister of State, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Bhagwanth Khuba and Minister of State for Tourism, GoI Ajay Bhatt also graced this event.
Secretary Culture, GOI Govind Mohan, Senior Officials from various Central Ministries, State Governments, Union Territory Administrations (UTs), Media and industry stakeholders were also present.
Speaking on the occasion, Reddy said that under the Prime Minister’s guidance and leadership it took them only 281 days to administer 100 crore COVID vaccine doses. There can be no bigger confidence booster for the revival of tourism than vaccination, he said.
“This conference was called to discuss and deliberate on the tourism development strategy for the region in line with the Prime Minister’s idea of Cooperative Federalism – where the Government of India and the state governments come together to find solutions for a better India”, Reddy added.
He further said that he truly believes that the Southern Region is unique in its offerings and the Ministry has laid special emphasis on developing infrastructure, on-ground capacity, and skills.
Reddy informed 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 amount to 15% of the entire scheme budget”, he added.
Reddy said that recently, the Ministry of External Affairs on the request of the Ministry of Tourism has appointed dedicated 20 Tourism Officers in Indian Missions abroad.
“This will enable us to widely promote Indian tourism in countries such as Australia, Canada, USA, France, Germany, and Gulf Countries,” he said adding that “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.
During the first day of conference ADG of Minister of Tourism Rupinder Brar gave a presentation on the various projects/initiatives/programmes being undertaken for the creation of tourism infrastructure, marketing & promotion, and skill development programmes in the Southern Region.
Director General, Archaeological Survey of India and Ministry of Tourism V Vidyavathi gave presentations on Heritage projects, monuments, and other cultural initiatives in the Southern Region. Potential of Cruise Tourism & Rail Tourism in the Southern Region and opportunity in Southern Region State–wise/UT-wise presentations were also given.
According to a statement from the Tourism Ministry, The Tourism promotes India as a holistic destination including southern region States & UTs on various platforms in Digital, Print and Social Media.
“Since April 2020, under the Dekho Apna Desh campaign, the Ministry of Tourism is conducting webinars on various tourism products including dedicated webinars on States & UTs of Southern Region. The connectivity by air, rail and road to various destinations in the region is excellent and sought-after destinations by many,” reads the statement.
It further added, that the Ministry of Tourism has concentrated on the issues of Skill development in the tourism sector, creating a pool of well trained and professional Tourist Facilitators is essential for providing world class services to the tourists, promotion and marketing for creating awareness about the destination in the domestic and international markets.
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