Tourism minister calls for higher regional cooperation

By IANS,

New Delhi : Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay Friday called for higher cooperation among South Asian countries in promoting tourism and offered India’s training facilities to other countries in the region.


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“More trained and skilled tourism professionals are required for the fast developing tourism industry. India can offer its training facilities to the people from south Asian countries,” Sahay said after inaugurating the 18th South Asia Travel and Tour Expo (SATTE) in the national capital.

“South Asian countries have a long way to go to attract tourists as we get less than one percent of inbound tourists from the region. We need to promote a sense of honourable and secure Tourism. Such events provide an excellent platform for this exchange,” he said.

The minister laid stress on safe tourism and said that India has tremendous scope for the growth of eco, rural and medical tourism.

“Our endeavour remains to exchange data and information on the latest trends and strategies with other countries at regular intervals”.

The minister said that a two-stage strategy for promoting tourism for both domestic and froeign tourists.

“Two stages have been suggested for promoting tourism. We will be organising tourism expos in India and abroad to present Incredible India to the whole world,” Sahay told IANS on the sidelines of the function.

A total of 38 countries are participating in the SATTE, which also has stalls from the 25 states of India.

According to the organisers, 600 Companies from 38 Countries have taken up Exhibition Stalls. These are from Switzerland, Spain, Britain, Poland, Hungary, Malaysia, Iceland, Thailand, Turkey and Dubai.

“Mostly buyers for Indian travel products are from America, China, Canada, France, Italy, Australia, Germany, Middle East etc,” SATTE chief co-ordinator Navin Berry told IANS.

“In recent years, India has emerged as a major player in the travel and tourism sector- as a destination and as a leading generator of travel,” he said.

Berry added that the expo aims at providing a common platform for various players from government and private sectors.

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