Northstar

12 | www.travelweekly-asia.com DESTINATION: INDIA As the Indian economy looks up, the government is promising better days for the tourism industry with proactive measures designed to give it a much required boost. Prime Minister Narendra Modi penchant to connect with the world has led to a rise in foreign tourists travelling to India, says tourism minister Mahesh Sharma. Sharma said the positive trend of Modi's worldwide visits had resulted by tweeters taken at Indian tourism sites are retweeted by the tourism ministry. In the first six months of 2015, India received 3.85 million visitors, 3.4% more than the previous year's first half figures. Initial hiccups on the e-visa – it was originally referred to as visa on arrival - created misunderstanding on part of visitors, but have been fixed and lesser known countries like Georgia that have reciprocated the facility are beginning to see visitors from India. It is estimated outbound tourism will touch 50 million by 2020 with Indians spending over US$28 billion up from US$15 billion in 2013. Subhash Goyal, president, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), said the "positive step exemplifies the working style of the prime minister to move things forward for tourism". Beijing International Tourism Expo (BITE) 2015 where leading Chinese outbound tour operators showed interest. "We are encouraged by the tremendous response....considering it was our first-ever participation in BITE, it gives us a lot of confidence for the future," said Kerala's minister of tourism, A.P. Anilkumar. Infrastructure projects include Cleaning of the Ganges, a long-term mega project, which once complete will offer cruises across centuries old cities along the river course in north India. An upgrade of heritage and pilgrimage sites is also in full swing. Modi's suggestion to the United Nations to declare April 29 as International Yoga Day has created an awareness of India as the land of the origin of yoga. Travel agents are introducing packages. A focus of the government is to open up tier 2 and 3 cities that will not just offer offbeat destinations but regional connectivity to a population with less access to visitors. Several new regional airlines have announced plans to start operations in India and to support this, the new aviation policy soon to be announced, includes incentives for the construction of low cost airports. On a visit to India, IATA director- general and CEO, Tony Tyler, spoke of some positive developments in recent months, "for which I commend the government's leadership. The most important is the restoration of India to Category 1 of the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme". "That follows more than a year of hard work to build capacity for flight operations inspectors and all the supporting processes and people for global standard safety oversight. Congratulations on this important achievement." During the short period of IASA downgrade, Indian carriers were not permitted to increase capacity nor have codeshares with US carriers. THE PM'S SELFIES PUT INDIA IN THE BIG PICTURE By Neelam Mathews India's tourism sector due for upgrade. Infrastructure projects include Cleaning of the Ganges, which once complete will offer cruises across centuries old cities. in significant increases in tourists from the United States, Brazil, Germany, Canada, Uzbekistan and Myanmar. Tourism secretary Lalit Panwar said the growth was being spurred by the e-visa facility "implemented in 76 countries so far". The scheme is due to be expanded to 150 countries by next year. E-ticketing is also being considered for major attractions like the Taj Mahal. The prime minister, through his active participation on social media, is clearly talking via Twitter to the new generation of travellers. Selfies "We are confident that, in the next phase, visitors from UK, Italy, Poland and more will also be granted the e-visa, which I am sure will increase the growth of tourism to double digit in next two years," Goyal said. IATO has also approached the government to allow multi-entry under e-Tourist Visa. During a visit to China, Modi announced the e-tourist visa for Chinese citizens, which is expected to give a big boost to inbound tourism. Kerala Tourism took a lead with an aggressive drive to tap the Chinese market recently at the

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