MOT presses for ‘Adopt a Heritage’
Not only has the Centre announced a new campaign jointly with ASI, it is also giving final touches to its ‘Incredible India’ version 2.0 that will be market-specific and based on India’s thematic circuits.
New Camapign
Two huge announcements were made by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, at the inauguration ceremony of the 33rd IATO Annual Convention that recently concluded in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Speaking at the event, Tourism Secretary, Rashmi Verma said, “The Centre needs the private sector to pitch in and bring in more investment in this sector. To facilitate this, we are in the process of launching a new campaign called ‘Adopt a Heritage’ in association with Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for upgrading facilities at some of the key ASI monuments. The idea is to offer these monuments up for adoption to the public and private sectors for setting up world-class infrastructure and maintenance of that monument. This includes the toilets and the overall cleanliness inside and outside the monument premises. I think this collaborative effort between the government and the private sector will help us present a world-class tourism experience to the international as well as domestic tourists.”
Incredible India 2.0
Verma added that the inbound traffic recorded a growth of 9.7 per cent in 2016 and this year till August 2017 the growth has been encouraging at 15.7 per cent. “But we cannot be complacent. If we want to compete, we need to have a competitive edge and create innovative marketing initiatives. We have come up with a global media campaign and MOT is now in the process of launching Incredible India 2.0 campaign which is going to be thematic in nature and will be market-specific. The earlier campaign was generic and the entire idea was to create awareness about India as a tourist destination. This campaign will target the key markets and emerging markets looking at their requirements such as the kind of experiences they are looking for. It will also be based on thematic circuits, which we are promoting under our ‘Swadesh Darshan’ scheme.”
Guide Issue
Verma added that the Ministry has also resolved the issue of lack quality tourist guides after IATO had raised this issue. “They are our first line of defense. We are starting guide training programmes and will issue licenses for the guides jointly with ASI. We have also upgraded our website and made it more personalised. The industry also needs to upgrade their website and share their content with us,” she added.
These announcements made by the MOT adhered to IATO’s theme for this convention. To this, Verma said, “It is time we all re-invented ourselves, whether it is the Government of India in terms of its policies and marketing strategies, the state governments in terms of infrastructure development, aggressive marketing and coming up with new tourism products, and the industry at large, which has to collaborate with the governments to come up with world-class infrastructure in various destinations.
We are in the process of launching a new campaign called ‘Adopt a Heritage’ in association with Archaeological Survey of India for upgrading facilities at some of the key monuments. Rashmi Verma Secretary, Ministry of Tourism
“The use of technology has become a buzzword in tourism sector also. There is demand for experiential tourism and a growth in cruise tourism and a preference for thematic packages,” she concluded.