TOURISM MINISTER CHALKS OUT AMBITIOUS PLAN FOR TOURISM
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The Union Minister of State (I/C) of Tourism and Culture, Mahesh Sharma has said that it would be the priority of the Government to promote culture, rich heritage and natural beauty of the country by creating synergy between the ministries of culture, tourism and civil aviation. He was speaking while assuming office as Minister for Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Culture in New Delhi yesterday. Highlighting the importance of the tourism and culture sector, he said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a great vision for this sector and that he would make all efforts to take this sector to a new high. One of the important action points will be to explore tourism potential of new areas like medical tourism and also promote domestic tourism among the youth, he added.
Expressing concern over the bottlenecks especially in the area of international tourism, the Union Minister said that providing adequate infrastructure, security and use of technology will be the focus over the next three months. He said that India has world class doctors and we should take advantage of this talent pool to promote medical tourism. Similarly, the youth in India is getting directed to tourist destinations abroad and we should try to make domestic destinations equally attractive for them. Sharma has said that to provide immediate connectivity to tourist destinations with poor connectivity, helicopter services and heliports will be provided for these areas. The Minister said that the efforts to bring back important heritage artefacts belonging to the country from abroad needs to be fast tracked.
He also said “growth in international tourism and a further boost to the image of `credible India’ are the top priority areas which require our immediate attention to achieve newer heights”. He stressed upon the need to interlink tourism with civil aviation and connectivity from airports to tourist sites. He said that Delhi, with a population of over one crore seventy eight lakh people, has already been overstressed and, therefore, an international airport at Greater Noida is `the need of the hour’ to promote more economic activities and generate employment.