SME Times News Bureau | 20 Aug, 2019
The one-day National Conference of Tourism Ministers
concluded successfully in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Organized by the Union Ministry of Tourism, it was
inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (Independent
Charge), Prahlad Singh Patel.
The conference was attended by State Tourism Ministers of 19
States, Secretaries of Tourism and senior officials from the States and Union
Territories (UTs) who deliberated on various issues related to the development
and promotion of Tourism.
Speaking on the occasion, the Tourism Minister urged for
better coordination between Centre and States to increase number of tourists in
India. Highlighting the importance of perception,
Patel said that we need to change the perception of India in
the mind of foreign tourists which will yield us good results for promotion of
tourism. He asked the States to organize surveys in their respective States to
understand how the foreign tourists perceive India and should work towards
removing negative impressions, if any.
The Minister stated that all of us together have to make
concerted efforts to realise the Prime Minister’s dream of doubling the
tourists, both foreign and domestic over the next five years.
The Tourism Minister launched the Hindi version of the new
Incredible India portal at the conference today.
He announced that the Arabic, Chinese and Spanish versions of
the new Incredible India website will be launched next month.
The new Incredible India website was launched on 14th
June last year. Since its launch, the website has attracted 85,84,928 total
visitors including 65,31,722 Unique Visitors as on 31st July, 2019.
Addressing the participants, Patel also urged all the Sates
and UTs to follow the norms of UNESCO while making proposals for Heritage site
of their sites with the help of ASI.
The Minister said that we have great potential in our natural
sites and we should focus on adventure tourism to attract more tourists in this
sector. He also said that recently, in order to promote night tourism, the
Culture Ministry has decided to open 10 historical monuments till 9 PM for
common visitors across the country.
He also urged all the States and UTs to open their important
monuments till late night for visitors.