Amit presses for consortium of State Tourism Boards for selling brand “Tourism India”
14/10/2017
Chandigarh, Oct 13: Regional Director, Survey & Land Records, Udhampur/ Reasi Amit Sharma led a panel discussion on "Leveraging Tourism, Building Smart Cities" during National Tourism Conclave which concluded at Chandigarh yesterday. During his keynote address, Amit talked pointedly about developing a strong consortium of various state tourism boards and tourism development corporations so that the brand value of Indian Tourism enhances especially in the eyes of foreign tourists and maximum states getting benefitted with influx and enhancement in the quantum of footfall of foreign as well as domestic tourists in different states of the nation.
Amit Sharma mentioned in his keynote address that all state tourism corporations which are working in silos have not been able to leverage the tourism potential to the optimal levels and primarily, it has happened due to individualistic approach adopted by our states. He further quoted the contemporary example of successful European Union Model wherein a tourist may land in France but ends-up visiting at least 8-12 European Countries before leaving Europe due to the lucrative models offered by the consortium of EU nations.
Amit further mentioned that similarly, Sri Lanka Tourism is sold as a wholesome package and all destinations are sold under one roof whereas whenever International Tourism Fairs are held, it is often seen that different states of India are seen selling respective tourism-products/packages in silos and hardly, it has been seen that India is marketed together as a single tourism destination due to which tourism trade and industry suffers a lot here. This proposal of RD, S&LR Amit Sharma was widely hailed in the Conference as one of the real take-aways of this Summit and it was decided to forward this to the Tourism Ministry, Government of India for consideration and adoption, as it is already a successful model for success of tourism industry across the globe.
While RD, S&LR Amit Sharma further talked about many challenges and strategies especially for converting pilgrimage tourists of Mata Vaishno Devi ji and Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) into regular tourists in both these adjoining states of J&K and Punjab respectively along with other things like focus on quality of tourists rather than focusing merely on huge quantum, safety & privileges to incoming tourists especially in the era of Smart Cities, eGovernance and Swaach Bharat, other panelists who joined the Panel Discussion included Dr Jora Bedi, Secretary, Department of Tourism, Govt of Arunachal Pradesh who talked about underlying tourism potential of seven-sister North-Eastern states and latest policies being adopted by them, Kumar Pushkar, MD, Karnataka Tourism Develo pment Board who talked about various initiatives of Karnataka Tourism using latest eGovernance tools for seamless traveling in state, Amit Kumar, Commissioner Amritsar Municipal Corporation, Basantgarh Garg, Commissioner Jalandhar Municipal Corporation, Avneet Kaur, Joint Commissioner, SAS Nagar (Mohali) Municipal Corporation who talked about latest initiatives being taken in their respective Municipal limits for creating sustainable tourism opportunities and Ashish Gupta, Consulting CEO, Federation of Association in Indian Tourism & Hospitality who shared various statistics and figures about tourists influx in the nation.
It is also worthwhile to mention here that this was a unique initiative of similarly-situated state of Punjab which faced the burnt of terrorism & militancy for years together during to which its tourism sector suffered like that of our Jammu & Kashmir. It is highly appreciable to get such a high-level National Tourism Conclave organised in its capital city wherein its Inaugural Session was led and addressed by none other than Sardar Navjot Singh Sidhu, former renowned international cricketer, who happens to be co-incidentally Minister for Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Government of Punjab.
Lot of other stars like CMDs, organisational heads like Bhavik Rathod, Head Uber Eats India, actor Deepa Sahi (Maya Memsaab fame),director Ketan Mehta, eminent music director & singer Anand Raj Anand, CMD ITDC Ravneet Kour, Indian Association of Tourist Operators President Pranob Sarkar, World bank India Sr. Specialist Albert Sole, Global Travel Writer Couple Hugh & Colleen Gantzers, INTACH and ASI Senior teams spoke and presented their respective perspectives during this National Tourism Conclave.
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