NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday advocated out-of-the-box thinking and long-term vision to promote tourism in the country.
Addressing a post-Budget webinar on ‘Developing Tourism in Mission Mode’, the PM underlined the importance of improved infrastructure not only for putting India’s remote villages on the tourism map, but also leading to increased footfall in Varanasi after the construction of the Kashi Vishwanath Dham, Kedarnath, and Pavagarh in Gujarat.
Emphasising that rejuvenation of religious sites boosted tourism, Modi said, “Some people think that tourism is a fancy word, for high-income groups, but inIndia, it has a long socio-cultural context.”
From 70-80 lakh devotees visting the Kashi Vishwanath temple in a year earlier, Modi said tourist footfalls crossed 7 crore after the renovation of the temple complex.
Appealing to stakeholders in the tourism sector to make the travellers’ experience more accessible to a wider audience, the PM said information about sites should be made available in multiple Indian languages.
Addressing the webinar, which is part of a 12-part series of post-budget engagements, Modi said the Union budget said promotion of tourism will be taken up in mission mode, with active participation of states, convergence of government programmes and public-private partnerships.
He also said ease of travelling to a destination, and new ways of promoting must be considered when preparing a roadmap for the future cutting across all tourist products including coastal, beach, mangrove, Himalayan tourism, adventure, wildlife, eco-tourism, heritage, spiritual, wedding destinations, and sports, among others. “We should develop at least 50 tourist destinations which will appear on the list for tourists whenever they think of visiting India,” he added.
The PM also said challenges such as the lack of professional tourist guides must be addressed by creating certificate courses in local colleges for guides and suggested that guides wear uniforms to be easily identified by tourists.