India will be hosting over 200 meetings across 55 cities, including in Northeast India, during G20 summit to be held from December 2022 to November 2023 in a bid to showcase its culture, history and tourism potential and to position itself as a major tourist destination in the world, Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy has said.
Reddy was addressing the inaugural session of the 10th International Tourism Mart (ITM) for the Northeast region (NER) on November 17, 2022 in Aizawl Thursday. This International Tourism Mart 2022 will highlight the diverse tourist attractions and products offered in the eight states, he said.
Among the G20 member countries, China, Mexico, India, South Africa and Indonesia are projected to expand their tourism industry post COVID, the minister said.
"With our presidency, we definitely can stride ahead of these 4-5 countries to build the rightful place of India's tourism industry in the global arena. We must plan to showcase our North Eastern Cultural Richness while welcoming the world to our country," he said.
Reddy said India will also hold an investors’ conclave in 2023 to promote global investments and MICE tourism into the tourism sector.
"Our focus will be to increase the global investments not only in the hospitality industry but to also promote Theme parks and entertainment centres, adventure tourism, cruise tourism, wellness tourism, winter tourism etc," he said.
Reddy further said that the Centre has been providing financial assistance to the Northeast region for overall tourism infrastructure development, promotion of fairs / festivals, tourism-related events in the region, publicity campaigns etc.
The Tourism Ministry has also set up a committee of active stakeholders in NER.
“The ministries of Tourism, DoNER and Road Transport & Highways are developing 100 view-points in the NorthEast region. As many as 22 viewpoints have been taken up for development at a cost of Rs 49 crore. In Mizoram, nine viewpoints have been taken up for development at the cost of Rs12.78 crore. In addition to that, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways is also in the process of developing viewpoints on their own,” Reddy added.
Meanwhile, Reddy along with Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga jointly laid the foundation stone of Aizawl Convention Center at Chite, PRASHAD Project in Mizoram and two Bamboo Link Roads during the inauguration of the ITM 2022 in Aizawl on Thursday.
The Union Minister also launched the Mizoram Tourism Coffee Table Book on this occasion. MoS Tourism Govt of Mizoram Robert Romawia Royte, Secretary Tourism Arvind Singh, Senior economic adviser, Ministry of Tourism, Gyan Bhusan, Manisha Saxena, Principal Secretary, Tourism Department, Government of Mizoram and other senior officials of GoI and Government of Mizoram also graced the event.
