MOT plans major M!CE drive

Rakesh Verma, Additional Secretary, MOT, claims that M!CE in India has a bright future with the Ministry planning a new campaign keeping in view various options surrounding the G20 Presidency.

Nisha Verma

Rakesh Verma, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism (MOT), has said that the G20 Presidency of India is a great opportunity to present the country’s M!CE potential. “We are going to step up our efforts to promote India as a M!CE destination. We are going to pick up all 55 destinations where G20 meetings are going to be held as places to be promoted. We are also launching a major campaign around M!CE in digital marketing space, so that people come to know about it. The M!CE conferences, which are going outside, at least they will explore venues within India, generally mobilizing India as a destination for M!CE tourism,” he added.

MOT recently organised the second Tourism Working Group meeting in Siliguri. Verma gave a presentation on the proceedings of the event alongside Secretary, Tourism, sharing details on how the delegates attending the meeting, not only deliberated on the issues  and topics at hand with each other, but also experienced the various facets of the beautiful destination. While Siliguri is not popularly known as a destination for M!CE events. Verma, however, concedes, “Darjeeling is an established destination and it receives a lot of tourists and the entire region of Siliguri, Darjeeling area has a lot of potential and we will continue to focus on this. There are a lot of adventure tourism opportunities. I am sure that this has got an impetus due to our G20 meeting and we will focus on that.”

NIDHI progress

Speaking on the NIDHI portal, Verma said, “Nidhi portal has further grown, and we have now got the travel trade move to that. We are now putting a destination centric website view where you pick up one destination and you can get all hotels, tour operators, attractions and tourist guides also. We are trying to now make it more holistic. It hasn’t yet been launched in a big way, but now that we have tried, tested and everyone is on board, we will have a launch of NIDHI in a big way.”