Ministry to give presentation to Modi on adventure, religious tourism in Himalayas

Govt is drawing a plan to increase the number of institutes of hotel management to meet the growing manpower requirement

Adventure and religious tourism round the Himalayas as well as identification of tourist circuits will find prominence in the tourism ministry's presentation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

Secretaries across ministries are set to meet Modi on Tuesday to discuss issues and present their short-term (100-day) agenda, as sought by the prime minister.

The tourism ministry will suggest its plan to take the Incredible India campaign forward, to facilitate information accessibility for foreign tourists. Other issues will include bottlenecks in visa process. The move to allow electronic visa authorisation, mooted by the previous government, will also be pushed by the ministry.

The government is drawing a plan to increase the number of institutes of hotel management to meet the growing manpower requirement.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised in its election manifesto to modernise and construct airports, specially those connecting smaller towns, and create infrastructure and employment round each tourist circuit. It promised to promote courses to build manpower capabilities and address the security issue, a dampener on India's image as a tourist destination.

The ministry data state 52,000 trained employees are available against the need of 583,000.

The BJP plans to initiate a project to create 50 tourist circuits that are affordable. These circuits will promote tourism in the Himalayas, deserts, coastal regions, heritage and archaeological sites. The ministry is working on a plan to promote such regions as part of its Incredible India campaign.

The BJP had in its manifesto said it would use tourism to revive Brand India.