No fleecing of tourists: Sharma
In an exclusive interview with , Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (I/C) has pointed out a three-pronged strategy to take tourism to new heights.
Promising to take tourism to new heights, the new Tourism Minister will look at taking tough action against touts, setting up tourist facility centres and launching heli-services. “Firstly, the Ministry will look at setting up tourist facility centres. The facilitation centres for tourists, especially for overseas visitors, will be set up at all international airports and only
Preventing fleecing of tourists by touts will be one of my priorities as it is causing a bad name for India
authorised taxi operators will be allowed to ply on these routes. We will also put a monitoring mechanism in place to boost end-to-end tourism,” Sharma revealed.
Secondly, tough action against touts will be taken. Expressing concern over the tout menace, Sharma lamented, “There have been several cases of tourists, specially foreigners, being fleeced by touts operating at airports and various tourist spots. There will be tough action against touts who are found harassing tourists coming from outside. It will not be tolerated. Thus, preventing fleecing of tourists by touts will be one of my priorities as it is causing a bad name for India.”
Thirdly, the MOT will focus on the cleanliness drive. “In the next three months, all our
heritage and tourist sites will be covered under the cleanliness drive,” the Minister said. Sharma, who is also the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, also stressed on launching heli-services for tourists for several tourist places to increase connectivity. “On the lines of the service available at Vaishno Devi, we will unveil heli- services for several tourist places to boost connectivity. To begin with, we will launch the helicopter service in the Buddhist circuit,” he added.