MoT Kickstarts World Tourism Day Initiatives

Indrani Rajkhowa - New Delhi

Renuka Chowdhury

The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) launched a number of new initiatives to mark the World Tourism Day at a function held in New Delhi. As part of the new initiatives, Air India will now sport 'Incredible India' brand displayed on the tail of select aircraft, Indian tourism themes with music will be available at the Microsoft Window - as a result of a tie-up to promote rural destinations - and tourist taxis with 'Incredible India' graffiti will run on the roads of metros.

Launching the schemes, Renuka Chowdhury, Minister of State for Tourism, said that she is hopeful of achieving five million tourist arrival by next year. "Till August 2005 the arrival has recorded a 15.6 per cent increase. There has been encouraging trends in niche areas like rural tourism, medical tourism and cruise tourism as a result of new initiatives."

Chowdhury also said that the MOT had decided to develop about a dozen destinations with concerted efforts and concentrated investment of Rs 25 to Rs 50 crore each during the current financial year. She informed that an aggressive marketing scheme was also being planned for overseas marketing, which will focus on niche markets and the youth, and unexplored markets like China will also be targeted.

The celebrations also included an exhibition of 'Incredible India' photographs, which was inaugurated by Somnath Chatterjee, Speaker, Lok Sabha. An array of award-winning entries for a competition held by MOT with the theme 'What tourism means to me' were exhibited.