MOT plans int’l promotions

Ravi Gosain, Vice President, IATO, has revealed that MOT met with inbound tourism associations to create an action plan for overseas promotions after the visa opening announcement by MHA.

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While AzadikaAmritMahotsav will be the common theme for all promotions, MOT is planning to declare year 2022-23 as Visit India Year.

For Dubai Expo, all associations have been asked to give presentations on the sector they represent. Ravi Gosain, said, “It’s a two-week programme from the MOT, and the tourism minister will also go there. While IATO will give presentation on ‘Luxury in India’ as well as ‘Heritage & Culture of India’, ATOAI will be focusing on ‘Adventure Opportunities’, and ICPB will present on MICE. There will be one day each dedicated to all sectors of tourism. In addition, the government wants to make the AzadikaAmritMahotsav and India@75 as the main brand for every promotion they are doing.”

Gosain revealed, “MOT called industry representatives to take opinions and suggestions on what we wanted in terms of promotions and how we can go about it.”

The Ministry had also proposed in the meeting that they wanted to declare 2022-23 as Visit India year, starting from August 15, 2022. “However, we suggested that it should start from January 1, 2022. If they want Visit India Year to be successful and meaningful, they should provide some incentives to the tour operators or tourists who want to visit India. Otherwise, it’d remain just a slogan,” he suggested.

On IATO’s behalf, they proposed that there should be resumption of commercial flights at the earliest. “We also suggested that E-visa should be double-entry with 60-days validity because currently they have done it for only 30 days. Also, visa information should be circulated and get wider publicity so that at least there should be demand for the Indian market. We highlighted many more issues in our agenda shared with the MOT,” he said.