By Aditya Vikram Singh/New Delhi:
WITH a view to boost tourism back home in India, the Government of India has undertaken many initiatives to promote domestic tourism in the country.
It is worth mentioning here that the tourism sector has suffered heavenly across the globe in view of the recent outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic that left the tourism industry rudderless.
The plans are afoot to make people to come out of the shadow of the Covid 19 pandemic gradually but systemically, said senior Government of India Tourism Department official here today.
In the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic, domestic tourism completely vanished and people had restrained themselves to their homes due to the lockdown that stretched to several months since March, this year, the tourism official pointed out.
Among the slew of measures that were announced by the Government of India to boost domestic tourism in the country, included various tourism packages, offered to the lakhs of Central government employees through LTC and other schemes. The central government employees are being encouraged to undertake travels to tourism hotspots in the newly carved out Union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir besides to tourist spots in North eastern states and several other parts of the country like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan, the tourism department official pointed out.
”At least, for now, all the doors of foreign or international tourists arriving in India are completely closed till the restart of the international flight operations, which will further depend upon the improvement in Covid 19 pandemic situation,” the tourism official mentioned.
Recently, Prahlad Singh Patel, Union Minister for Culture and Tourism, had also announced that the plans were afoot to provide new filip to the domestic tourism in the country, as the domestic tourism industry had already suffered a lot due to the lockdown in the wake of the corornavirus pandemic, in terms of footfall of tourists and the economy. The union tourism minister had stressed for the need of rebooting domestic tourism in India.
First of all, local tourism is being promoted by encouraging people to pay visit to local tourist hotspots in their areas and a visit to local hotels and restaurants, the tourism official pointed out adding that after this, the tourists were also being encouraged to undertake domestic tourism in large scale, for which promotional offers are also being announced by the Union government in consultation with several state governments, which have bigger tourism potential to tap, like and Himachal Pradesh.
In order to remove hesitation of the tourists as far as the spread of coronavirus pandemic is concerned, awareness campaigns are being undertaken and awareness is being spread among the public regarding sanitation, hygiene and cleanliness.
Besides, hotels and restaurants, both big and small, at picnic and tourist spots have been particularly instructed and directed to maintain completely hygiene, sanitation and cleanliness for ensuring safety and protection of tourists and take all precautionary measures in this regard, said another tourism official.
Moreover, in order to ensure safety and protecting of tourists, a series of workshops and training programs of personnel from hotel and tourism industry are also being regularly conducted at different levels, on hygiene, sanitation and cleanliness with respect to SOPs of Covid-19, tourism official informed.
However, a tourism sector official said that ”Despite all the efforts being undertaken by the GoI, and the measures recently announced, domestic tourism will come out of the shadow of covid 19, only when travel restrictions are lifted from international flights, as foreign tourists play major role in tourism economy in India.’.
According to an estimate, over one crore foreign tourists visited India last year, which led to earning of Rs 2.10 lakh crore approximately.
(Author Aditya Vikram Singh is a senior journalist, currently associated with Democratic Accent as Special Correspondent. He is well-known for his hard-hitting stories and investigative reporting, and has extensive experience in all important beats. He had previously worked with reputed groups such as Indian Express and Hindustan Times.)
