Two Day Chintan Shivir ‘Tourism In Mission Mode’ Concludes

The two day Chintan Shivir ‘Tourism in Mission Mode: Convergence and Public Private Partnership’, organized by the Ministry of Tourism successfully concluded on 30th March with fruitful deliberations on wide range of challenges and opportunities for development of the tourism sector with active participation of States, Industry Associations and Industry leaders. The workshop saw 11 knowledge sessions spread across 2 days covering a wide variety of topics.

Minister of Tourism, Culture and DoNER Shri G Kishan Reddy thanked the participants of the conference for being a part of the Chintan Shivir and sharing insightful thoughts and strategies that can be adopted nationally to implement Tourism in Mission Mode in India. Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Shri Arvind Singh concluded the two day Chintan Shivir talking about the upcoming 1st Global Tourism Investors Summit and the valuable inputs that have been received from stakeholders to carry forward the mission of growth in India’s tourism sector.

Shri Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism concluded the second day Chintan Shivir with a Valedictory Session. He highlighted that the year 2023 is of manifold importance with India assuming the G20 presidency as well as also holding the Chair of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Recently, the Ministry has organized the ‘SCO Tourism Ministers’ meeting’ in Kashi (Varanasi), which has been designated as the first cultural capital of SCO.

Further, he again reiterated that the 1st Global Tourism Investors Summit (GTIS), under the aegis of India’s G20 Presidency will be held for two day in New Delhi from 17th-19th May 2023. It will serve as a platform to enable interaction between global and domestic business leaders and explore investment opportunities in the Indian Tourism and Hospitality sector and the Chintan Shivir will also provide significant inputs for conducting business during upcoming GTIS.

The round of discussions on the second day of the Chintan Shivir covered the issues related to Convergence of Government Programs across multiple sectors. Tourism is a cross sectoral subject and requires support of multiple Ministries and Departments. The Second day`s sessions deliberated on several issues to build synergies in the plans of different Ministries for development of connectivity and infrastructure to enhance the potential of tourist destinations.

Several line Ministries like Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, Ministry of Port, Shipping and Waterways, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Ministry of Jal Shakti shared their plans to develop various natural and cultural attractions under their control in consultation and partnership with Ministry of Tourism so that the same could be marketed and promoted to the domestic and foreign travellers.

Deliberations in different Sessions included the topics of Convergence of Government Programs in developing different sectors, Developing Homestays, Souvenirs, and Tourist Guides and Developing Adventure Tourism and Rural Tourism in the Country

Travel industry associations like Adventure Tour Operator Association of India (ATOAI) and several State Governments of Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Sikkim, Bihar, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur, Uttarakhand and UT of Ladakh participated in the discussion and presented case studies. The concluding sessions of Chintan Shivir ideated on developing niche tourism products such as promotion of Homestays, souvenirs, tourist guides, adventure & rural tourism.

Some of the key outcomes of Chintan Shivir are as follows :

Industry Aspirations for a 3 Trillion USD GDP in 2047.
Best practice for grant of Industry Status to tourism and hospitality sector by Rajasthan to be taken up for replication by other states
A more focused State tourism policy benchmarking exercise will be taken up with less parameters and more rigour in analysis of state policies
A working group to go into various aspects of Ease of Doing Business in Tourism and Hospitality
Destination profiles to be created to attract private sector investment
Lakshadweep as a success story for PPP to be used for replication
India as a MiCE and Wedding Destination – Launch of national marketing campaigns
MiCE – Hyderabad Convention Promotion Bureau is a good model for destination level convention bureau – to be studied in detail for replication
Ministry to engage with UNWTO for capacity building tourism investment strategy
Ministry to pursue strong engagement with Startups in tourism and hospitality
NIDHI plus – will be positioned as National Tourist Services Portal and linked to incredible india for SEO
ATITHYAM – is a major transformative initiative from Gujarat Tourism to be replicated at the national level
Convergence – Inter ministerial working groups set up to develop convergence matrix in four areas of connectivity and infrastructure, tourism products and experiences, skill development, regulatory reforms and ease of doing business
Homestays – one nation one registration to be pursued
Centre of Excellence for Best Practices to be explored to benchmark, replicate and scale up best practices by the States and Industry
Rural Tourism Cluster Development – model to be developed
Mega Adventure Trails – to be developed in partnership with MoEFCC, MHA, Civil Aviation and States
Model Law on Adventure Tourism – to be finalised expeditiously
Adventure Tourism Rescue Centre – to be finalised expeditiously
Challenge mode for selection of 50 destinations as per budget announcement presented to the States – which based on five parameters and will be finalised expeditiously