India has bagged three prestigious awards from World Travel Awards(WTA). These are: World’s Leading Destination- India, World’s Leading Tourist Board- Incredible India and World’s Leading Tourist Attraction- Taj Mahal. Union Tourism Minister Sh. K. Chiranjeevi received these awards here today.
Speaking on the occasion, the Union Tourism Minister said that his Ministry has prepared a multi-pronged strategy to increase India’s share in World Tourist Arrivals. He said, “This includes development of world class Infrastructure and manpower and undertaking aggressive promotional and marketing activities. Referring to the recently launched Phase-II of Incredible India campaign the Minister said “The Campaign indicates a paradigm shift with the focus now being on the consumers. The emphasis is on the fact that Tourists from the world over can find their destination or product of desire in India.” Lauding the roll of Tourism Sector in the creation of jobs, particularly in remote and backward areas, the Minister said it provides employment to a wide spectrum of job seekers in the country from the unskilled to the specialised. He said, “Tourism also has the potential to stimulate other economic factors through its linkages with a host of sectors like agriculture, manufacturing, transport, hospitality and many others”. Shri Chiranjeevi was of the opinion that growth in tourism has become an instrument for sustainable development including poverty elimination, environmental regeneration and job creation in countries across the world. He said “ Its’ importance lies in being an instrument for economic development and employment generation”.
Established 19 years ago, WTA is committed to raising the standards of customer service and overall business performance throughout the international tourism industry. This was for the first time that WTA ceremony was held in Asia