The Center on Monday, April 24, 2023 said that it is planning to develop 50 new tourist destinations across the country with focus on green tourism.
Union Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh said that the Ministry of Tourism is also promoting digitization, skill development, promotion of MSMEs and destination management.
Addressing the G20 Tourism Expo in Jaipur, he said that the government is also focusing on the development of strong infrastructure. “We are taking a 360-degree approach to develop tourism infrastructure with a focus on enhancing rail, road and air connectivity. We have recommended 59 new routes to Ministry of Civil Aviation under UDAN scheme, which is very successful and out of these 51 tourist routes have already been made operational.
UDAN is a regional airport development program and is part of the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) to upgrade under-served air routes. It aims to make air travel affordable.
Mr Singh said that India’s tourism sector is showing the strongest recovery in the Asia-Pacific region after the pandemic.
“Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, India is set to record 6.19 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2022, registering a growth of 305% as compared to 1.52 million in 2021. To further boost tourism, we are planning to promote green tourism and open 50 new tourist spots and start promotion in overseas market,” he said.
The G 20 Tourism Expo is organized by the Ministry of Tourism in association with FICCI and Department of Tourism, Government of Rajasthan. Representatives of tourism boards of 11 states are participating in the conference.