For the first time there will be road shows al over India to tap them special holiday packages. Eager to get the tourism sector back on track after the global economic recession and Mumbai terror strike, the Tourism Ministry would begin with a road show in Kolkata with special emphasis on North-eastern States. This move is significant because domestic tourists number 560 million in India.
The brainchild of Tourism Minister Kumari Selja, the road shows will get tour operators, trade pundits and the tourists on one platform. The first road show will kick-start as a two-day affair in Kolkata on Tuesday where tour operators would discuss special packages available especially for Indian families for group travels within the country.
So f ar, the Indian Tourism Ministry has organized road shows only in other countries and not in India. A senior Tourism Ministry official said:” We always organize road shows for an international audience with ‘Incredible India’ as the theme. This time, the Minister thought that we should tap the domestic tourist sector also.”
The Tourism sector is showing the first signs of revival now. After double digit negative growth following the Mumbai terrorist attack in November 2008, the last two months have shown positive growth.
Latest statistics compile by the Tourism Ministry on the basis of data received from major airports reveals that foreign tourist arrivals have increased from 4.29 lakh in July 2008 to 4.32 lakh in July this year. Hugh the increase is only nominal – 0.6 per cent – it is significant because other countries are still registering double digit negative growth in tourism figures. This data becomes even more important as this is the second consecutive month that foreign tourist arrivals have shown a positive trend. In June the growth rate was 0.2 per cent.
Even Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) have witnessed and increase clearly indicating that India might have finally broken the downward trend, which the global tourism industry is still witnessing .The foreign exchange earnings has increased from Rs3870 crore in July 2008 to Rs4983 crore in July this year. This 28.8 per cent increase is even bigger that what the sector witnessed in June (11.5 per cent), May (8.7 per cent) and April (7.6 per cent).
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