“We want to make India a year-long destination.”

Dubey has been working in the tourism ministry for 26 years and was the Regional Director of the North East region and West Bengal in 2007. She said that she was happy that these areas have now become popular with international tourists.

She was proud that the international tourist arrivals to India had increased by 8.9 per cent, last year, leading to a revenue of $ 17.52 billion. “But that’s only .64 per cent share in the international travel industry. We want to raise this to 1 per cent within five years,” she stated.

Meanwhile, the Indian Ambassador to Thailand Anil Wadhwa was proud that there were as many as 152 flights a week between Thailand and India, leading to increased tourism traffic between the two countries.