00:00 Our next presentation is going to do that.
00:02 It's going to talk about incredible India and how the brand has been a catalyst for change.
00:08 And to do the honors and talk about Ministry of Tourism,
00:11 I'd like to invite Mr. Pawan Jain, who heads Responsible Tourism for the Outlook Group.
00:16 Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Pawan Jain.
00:20 [Applause]
00:36 Hello, good evening everyone.
00:39 I am here to make a presentation on behalf of Ministry of Tourism,
00:42 Government of India, highlighting various initiatives taken by them in the space of Responsible Tourism.
00:49 This has been put together by Outlook Responsible Tourism Initiative
00:53 as part of our ongoing efforts in getting the information together for all the stakeholders in the industry.
01:00 Considering we are at the fag end of the day, I will not be taking much of your time,
01:06 and the presentation is aptly titled "10 Minutes, 10 Slides".
01:12 Can we have the next slide, please?
01:18 Next slide, please.
01:21 The new National Tourism Policy lays out an important goal,
01:26 which is to increase the world tourist arrivals from 0.7% to 0.1% by 2020, and to 2% by 2025.
01:36 It also mentions to generate about 10 crore jobs, contributing around 8% of the national GDP.
01:45 But how will this happen?
01:49 Can we have the next slide, please?
01:52 The answer is not just bring travellers, but the kind of travellers that we want to come in India.
02:00 Travellers who stay longer, spend more, and immerse themselves in the Indian culture.
02:06 The National Tourism Policy by the Ministry of Tourism suggests different ways to achieve this,
02:12 which are highlighted as below, that bring year-round visits rather than seasonal tourists,
02:18 disperse the tourists across destinations rather than focusing on a few destinations,
02:24 increase the length of the stay of the tourists, and increasing the repeat visits of the tourists.
02:31 But...
02:46 Again, the big question is how to do this?
02:49 We at Outlook feel this can be done by some innovation in packaging our products and destinations by selling them as circuits.
02:58 The National Tourism Policy by the Government of India also reiterates this fact.
03:03 Another area is better collaboration between states having similar interest products.
03:10 For example, Himalayan tours or adventure packages could be synergized together by the hill states of J&K, Himachal, and Uttarakhand.
03:18 Buddhist circuits can be developed with better coordination between states like UP, Bihar, and Odisha.
03:24 Advantage of packaging destinations into circuits is that travelers are not only interested in one particular attraction or state,
03:32 but he visits the entire circuit.
03:35 This is one of the ways to achieve the objective that we just mentioned.
03:42 Excellent example of this is by UP Tourism, who have developed and marketed Heritage Arc
03:49 for the people who are visiting Taj Mahal so that they also explore the heritage cities of Lucknow and Benares.
04:00 The Ministry of Tourism has identified several key themes that can be promoted as circuits in the coming years,
04:07 and we at Outlook have listed out a couple of examples which are doing excellent work in their respective space.
04:15 The idea here is to highlight examples that we can learn from and replicate when we are making these circuits.
04:24 The first one being the rural tourism, which helps to create livelihood for the local communities, empower the women,
04:31 keeps the check on rural immigration, and breaks the caste barriers at a lot of places,
04:38 especially in the case of the example mentioned here, Friends of Orchha.
04:43 Another example of doing great work is Grassroots in Maharashtra, RTE's mission in Kerala,
04:49 and Village Ways in Uttarakhand, the presentation of which we just saw some time back.
04:56 Next area is the culinary trails. Food reveals a lot about culture.
05:01 Culinary trails or circuits can do wonders if developed properly, especially in the diverse countries like ours.
05:08 A few examples in this space are highlighted here.
05:13 Delhi Heritage Walks conducted by Sohail Hashmiji.
05:17 KPPO in Assam, they give exclusive experience of foraging in forests and making culinary treats out of them.
05:24 The Bangala in Tamil Nadu, they give courses in Chettinad cuisine as part of their tours.
05:31 Spiti Cosphere, they are helping to grow traditional grains in the area of Spiti in Himachal.
05:40 Another space on the circuits is the textile and handicrafts, which are the excellent way to learn about the local heritage and culture.
05:49 India has a wealth of textiles that everyone wants to know more about.
05:54 And at the end, it's a great memento to take away to your home after a memorable holiday.
06:00 A few examples which we have listed are Blue Yonder in Kerala.
06:04 They are doing a great work in engaging the local musicians that give amazing and inspiring experience to the guests.
06:11 Raghurajpur Crafts Village in Odisha, they engage local patta chitra painters.
06:17 Riva Society in Maheshwar, which helps generate livelihoods to hundreds of women by involving them in Maheshwari silk weaving.
06:27 Eti Kopaka and Kundapalli in Andhra Pradesh, which are famous for their local crafts of wooden toys.
06:34 Next sector is the wellness.
06:39 Brand India is known internationally for their yoga and Ayurveda.
06:43 Developing destination on these themes can be extremely lucrative for tour operators.
06:49 Examples listed are Govardhan Eco Village in Maharashtra, which has developed on the basis of spiritual tourism.
06:56 Kalari Kovilakam in Kerala for their traditional Ayurveda.
07:01 And others like Shreyas in Karnataka and Ananda in Himalaya, as we all know.
07:08 Coming to extending the initiative and the policies to SAC.
07:16 As much like our objective at the summit today, the Ministry of Tourism also lays emphasis on need of cooperation between the SAC members
07:23 to share the common heritage of Himalaya region, Buddhist circuits and mythological circuits,
07:29 especially in the countries of India and Sri Lanka for Ramayana circuit.
07:36 Ending it with highlighting few initiatives which MOT has taken further to grow tourism around the country in general
07:47 is like adoption of monuments by corporates, database of Ayurveda and wellness centers,
07:53 developing villages with handicrafts and handlooms as part of tourism destinations,
07:58 creation of jetties and marinas to facilitate river and marine cruises, adventure tourism guidelines,
08:04 and development of wayside amenities on highways and important roads.
08:08 I believe with all this, there are a lot of key takeaways which we all can take and take the tourism in a much more responsible manner.
08:18 I thank you for your time.
08:20 [APPLAUSE]
