Plans afoot for inbound tourism

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, says that while domestic tourism has shown a promising recovery, the Ministry is now focusing on attracting more international tourists and MICE groups to India via promotional schemes.

Nisha Verma

Tourism Secretary, Arvind Singh says his Ministry is aware of the hardships being faced by the Indian tourism industry due to the pandemic, and that as part of its effort to mitigate these hardships, the government has taken various fiscal measures to support the industry. Singh was speaking at PATA India Chapter’s 10th Update & Outlook Meeting where he addressed these concerns.

The initiatives, he added, include the launch of incentives for tour operators for enhancing tourist arrivals under the Champion Services Sector Scheme (CSSS), launched on a pilot basis and covering short, medium and long-haul destinations across 17 countries. Sharing an update on the scheme, Rakesh Verma, Joint Secretary, MOT, said, “The scheme is approved and is slightly delayed because of the pandemic. We have circulated the guidelines, and the modalities are being worked out. With this scheme we are proposing that interested foreign tour operators register with us; there is a mechanism by which we will calculate the number of passengers the said operators bring in every quarter.”

MICE & CSSS

While it will take some time for both domestic and inbound MICE to begin, Singh said that the incentives proposed for MICE operators under the Champion Services Sector Scheme will encourage MICE operators to bring in more conferences, meetings and seminars to India. He added, “Under this scheme, conferences must have a minimum of 250 participants that must comprise at least 20% foreign participants to be eligible for the incentive in the form of reimbursement of GST for the first two days of stay. This will kick in once inbound travel is permitted.”

MOT aims to increase the number of MICE events that take place in the country. According to Singh, India has a very small percentage of the global MICE market, and many Indian groups and Indian MICE events are held in Southeast Asia, Middle East or Maldives. Hence, the short-term strategy would be to attract some of them because of the restrictions on travel.

MDA scheme

Singh also spoke about liberalisation of the Market Development Assistance (MDA) scheme for promotion and marketing of India in overseas markets, including tourism service providers approved by the government and UT administration, besides the MOT. “These service providers have also been allowed to avail assistance under MDA, enhancing financial assistance from `2.5 lakh to `3.5 lakh, enhancing foreign exchange turnover from `15 crore to `25 crore to cover a greater number of tourism service providers under the scheme. The number of overseas trips permissible has been enhanced from two to three per financial year,” he added.

Tourism Marketing Representatives

MOT is also contemplating initiating the process of appointment of tourism marketing representatives in key markets overseas where they don’t have representation.“We aim to enhance our presence in such markets to increase foreign tourist arrivals into the country and to target those emerging countries that have untapped potential. This will help us realise our vision of creating a unified strategy and forge partnerships amongst MOT, the Indian missions abroad, and all relevant stakeholders to promote inbound tourism to India. We have prepared a detailed framework,” the Tourism Secretary explained.

Verma added that the preliminary work had already been done before the second wave. “We identified some of the markets we needed to position these representatives in. We are working on it and in about three to four months, we would have them ready so that whenever international travel opens, we will have them on ground to help us,” he shared.

ITDC as national MICE Bureau

On MOT’s proposal to appoint ITDC as a national MICE bureau, which is evoking criticism, Singh said, “We have received several emails and communication expressing the concerns of stakeholders regarding the same. I don’t think it was ever in our thoughts to limit or restrict the India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB), but it was just to see ITDC as a support organisation. Hence, when we take a final view on the MICE strategy and policy, we will clarify the role of ITDC and the role of ICPB, so that any concerns or misgivings or misunderstandings are removed.”