TravTalk India Online Magazine
Calling out to the industry to work together with the government, Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism, shared that the government is not only working to bridge the information gap and create suitable infrastructure, but is also working on getting the trade organised in line with its new platforms for the hospitality sector.
Nisha Verma
Rupinder Brar says that MOT is closely working with states in creating infrastructure. “We have 29 international airports and over 130 airports offering regional connectivity under the UDAN scheme. With UDAN-4 announcing almost 78 more destinations, I think we are in exciting times as far as infrastructure is concerned. In terms of road network, we are just second to the US. While there are gaps, there is a lot that has been done,” she said, speaking at the CII Annual Tourism Summit.
Mending the information gap
Brar believes that a lot of information gaps exist in the minds of people. She asserted that MOT has been trying to bring out all the information to people, telling them that it is not that hard to travel to any destination within India. “There has been a lot of apprehension. They think it’s easier to travel to Thailand than from Delhi to Chennai, which is not true. While the railway is already a huge network, there is a need for us to flag the road and airline networks, since people are looking at short-haul and driveable destinations,” she said.
Even in terms of infrastructure around tourist sites, she added, “There is no dearth of products.The kind of homestays that India offers today and the kind of properties that are available are some of the best in the world. We should leverage this as a country, not only from the point of view of domestic tourism, but also to attract international tourists who shall very soon be travelling as protocols and visa rules are eased across the world, and the vaccine comes in.”
Int’l travel will continue
One great initiative, according to Brar, is organising the hospitality industry by creating a database. “We have around 35,000 entities registered. Surely, many more exist in India and we hope that very soon they would come on board. The idea is not just getting them onto a database, but ensuring that we reach out as a support to the industry while also making the ecosystem safe for the future traveller not only from a COVID perspective, but also because a value chain needs to be created for the consumer,” she explained, adding, “We cannot say that just because they cannot travel anywhere, they are going to travel domestic. Instead, they shall continue to do so when the world travels again, and it’s time for all of us to make sure that we create value in this period which will retain all these travellers within India,” she elaborated.
