Need to review tourism offices abroad: Soni

Minister for Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni has underlined the need for reviewing the functioning of the 13 overseas tourism marketing offices.

"Tourists go to travel portals and not to offices," said Soni at the inauguration of the two-day meet on overseas marketing of Indian tourism.

Soni said those posted at these offices would have to become more proactive and imaginative to not only increase tourist inflow to India, but also to lure tourists to return.

She also sought a list of all those who visited the country in the last two years under this scheme.

The minister wanted the list to include details such as the reasons for these people being invited, the places they visited and if they had revisited the country.

The minister underlined the need for better coordination between the ministries of external affairs, home affairs and civil aviation, so as to smoothen the procedure of granting visas to foreign tourists.

Tourism accounts for roughly 6 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and about 9 per cent of the total employment, according to Ashok Kumar Mishra, secretary of the tourism ministry.

In spite of this commendable growth, we are lagging in terms of sheer volumes, he added. Macau (with a population of 4.5 lakh) handled 17.5 million tourists. India, on the other hand, received only 3.92 million tourists last year, said Mishra.

As the private sector is the driver of real growth, Mishra said the ministry's strategy should be to act as a facilitator.

The ministry also proposed to increase the allocation under the market development assistance scheme to enable a larger number of domestic tour operators and hoteliers to take part in travel marts abroad so that it may realise the aim of achieving an overall target of 25 per cent growth, said Mishra.