Visit 15 domestic destinations a year and get rewarded by the Central Government. Bringing joy to travel enthusiast, the Centre is an epic move is all set to sponsor the travel expenses as an incentive of those travellers who visit 15 domestic tourist spots in a year. Union Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel announced this at the concluding ceremony of the two-day National Tourism Conference, organised by Odisha government in association with FICCI at Konark.
Clearly mentioning that the move should not be construed as a monetary benefit, but as an incentive, he said, “Tourism Ministry will fund the travel expenses of tourists who visit 15 destinations in the country in a year and submit the photos to our website. However, the condition is that the person should travel out of his/her own state to be eligible for contention. We should honour these persons as brand ambassadors of Indian Tourism.”
Chairman of Ficci Eastern Tourism Committee, Soubhagya Mohapatra said more tourist trains should be introduced to connect to more tourists sites. “The Centre can coordinate with states to introduce more tourist trains to connect various undiscovered areas of India,” Mohapatra said.
Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General of Tourism, said the ministry has been organising certificate programmes for candidates intending to work as tourist guides. “But, participation of Odisha in this programme is very low and it needs to be enhanced. The state government should encourage students to take part in the certificate course,” she said.
On the concluding day of National Conference, a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) was signed between Odisha government and Gujarat for cross-promotion of tourist sites in both states as well as across India. The Union Tourism minister said the Sun Temple at Konark would be included in the list of ‘iconic sites’. A special event will be organised to announce the inclusion of the Sun Temple in the list of ‘iconic sites’ very soon, he said.
A formal Memorandum of Understanding mentioning key frameworks and policies will be signed soon after discussions with relevant departments of both the states, said Sachin Ramchandra Jadhav, Director of Tourism, Government of Odisha.
