MTDC’s Diamond Alliance for tourism
In a bid to jointly promote tourism in the state, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has forged a ‘Diamond Alliance’ with key players in the travel trade and hospitality sectors.
The MTDC’s new alliance will create new tourism products and packages, while also promoting its travel trade partners. The alliance will have players from restaurants, resorts, hotels, tour operators, transport operators and air-
From each sector, we will have three to four partners and we have reached that number for this year
lines among others. Under this initiative, MTDC will be the nodal agency and will jointly help design new tourism products and packages. The alliance will become a reality soon as the state tourism authority signs the MoUs with the members.
Jagdish Patil, Managing Director, MTDC said, “We invited the stakeholders from across sectors; and after holding two rounds of meetings, we have prepared the MoU. We will start signing it soon. Hospitality players like Oberoi and Marriott have already become a part of the alliance. Informing about the criteria of selection, Patil said that the members have been selected on the basis of pre- decided parameters. The players have been chosen on a first-come, first- serve basis. “From each sector, we will have three to four partners and we have reached that number for this year. We will go on expanding it during the next year,” he added.
MTDC has been actively rolling out new tourism projects in order to promote states offering while easing out the clearance process for key tourism players. One of the major breakthroughs in this direction is digitalisation of the clearance process. Last year, the state tourism authority, along with Department of Tourism and Department of Urban Development, have appointed Accenture Management Consulting (AMC) to review rules and regulations, licences, permits and the application procedures pertaining to the hospitality industry. MTDC has recently announced to offer packaged tours in association with Dadasaheb Phalke Chitra Nagri (Filmcity - Goregaon), starting February 8, 2014.