After executing a series of strategies for Kashmir tourism promotion in India, the J&K Government plans to host nearly 700 Indian tourism players to attract more tourists to Kashmir.

The government, in collaboration with the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), will bring tourism agents and aviation players from March 25 to March 29 to the Valley.
Zahoor Qari, chairman of TAAI's J&K chapter, told Kashmir Reader that the main aim is to tell the convention's invitees about the reality of the Kashmir Valley, which is in contrast to the wrong reportage done by Indian national news channels and newspapers.

“Among the delegates, we have players who have never been to Kashmir but have settled for its image as constructed by the Indian media. We want to tell them the reality that Kashmir is not what you see in Indian media,”

Last year, Kashmir Tourism players were left despondent with the state's hitting a palpable low in tourist arrivals. Their main strategy has been to dispel wrong notions of Kashmir in the states of India, a strategy to be adopted by the Government of India's special representative Dineshwar Sharma. As Kashmir always focused on Indian tourists than foreign for tourism growth. In the report it is mentioned the tourism industry players from all across  India will meet in March to host the event.

It is certain that this step will encourage the travelers to explore heaven on earth. It will definitely boost Indian tourism industry.

Source: Kashmir Reader

Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance, Government of India would like to convert 10 prominent tourist destinations into iconic and model destinations by adopting a holistic approach to development with private sector support.

Finance Minister announced that they are planning to enhance the tourist experience of 110 monuments which comes under the ASI ( Archaeological Survey of India) under the scheme National  Heritage City Augmentation.

The ministry announces the construction of a tunnel under 'Sela Pass 'in Arunachal Pradesh to improve connectivity and tourism in that northeastern state.
Sela Pass is a high-altitude mountain pass located on the border between Tawang and West Kameng Districts of Arunachal Pradesh, an area China claims to be a part of south Tibet.

He also mentioned about the 14 km long tunnel at the Zoji La Pass is progressing well.Considering the aviation infrastructure, “the government will enhance airport capacity to handle one billion trips a year” he said

“56 un-served airports and 31 un-served helipads have been already activated under the Regional Connectivity scheme of the government and operations have already been started on 16 such places,” he said.

Source: Travel Biz Monitor

To give it a further boost, West Bengal tourism department has taken an elaborate promotional plan for the northern corner of the state as a part of its international travel mart 'Destination East'.

"Among all sectors of trade and commerce, tourism business has been one of the deepest sufferers of the situation. Now it is the time to turn around," said tourism minister of the state Gautam Deb.

"Under Destination East travel mart, a special promotional initiative has been chalked out to showcase Darjeeling hills and adjoining foothills to the international travel trade representatives," He added.

"Their first-hand experience will be the confidence builder for travels from their respective locations to Darjeeling as well as the entire eastern Himalayan region," said veteran travel consultant Raj Basu.

Destination east is a joint endeavor of state tourism and Confederation of Indian industries to showcase and promote new and non-conventional to international buyers. Beginning in 2010 with 30 representatives from south Asian countries only, the travel mart will have 102 visitors from 30 countries in 2018.

Source: economictimes

Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath government has undertaken the development of 10 new airports in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to boost religious business tourism in India by increasing the connectivity between the religion, region and business to boost the economy of the country.

The Union Civil Aviation Ministry, develop Agra Kanpur airport after bidding under the regional connectivity scheme in the first phase. In second phase the government also decided to built 10 more new airports - Allahabad, Aligarh, Bareilly,Azamgarh,Chitrakoot, Hindon (Ghaziabad), Jhansi, Moradabad, Muirpur (Sonbhadra), and Shravasti are under the project. As these are the prominent cultural and religious tourism places in Uttar Pradesh. Kanpur (Leather) , Aligarh (Lock Making Units)and Moradabad (Brassware) are the place have industry that will help in the business growth.

Yogi government had urged the Center to expedite the proposal in order to boost the religious business tourism in India.

Alphons says the tourism ministry has recognized medical and wellness promotion tourism by organizing campaign shows

The government said that the value of medical tourism in India is likely to touch USD 9 billion by 2020 forecast as compared to the USD 3 billion in 2015.

Tourism Minister KJ ALphons today informed the Lok Sabha that India has developed as a major medical tourism destination over the years.

According to a Ministry of Commerce report 2016- India is ranked among the top six medical value travel destinations of the world including - Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Mexico.

"It is further informed that as per the report, through adequate focus and effective execution, Indian medical value travel, pegged at 3 billion USD in 2015, can be 9 billion USD opportunity by 2020", the minister said.