Tourism ministry launches infoline in 12 languages

The tourism ministry on Monday launched a round-the-clock toll-free infoline in 12 international languages for the benefit of both international and domestic tourists.

Apart from English and Hindi, the infoline will provide relevant information to tourists in Arabic, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Portuguese and Russia.

The callers can avail the service on 1800111363 or on a short code 1363. Calls made by international and domestic tourists to the number while in India will be free of charge.

Launching the service at a function here, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture Mahesh Sharma said that an 'Incredible India Mobile App' will soon be launched to help tourists.

"The multilingual infoline will provide information to domestic and international tourists. It will also give advice to callers on action to be taken during times of distress while travelling in India and on the need to alert authorities concerned," Sharma said.

International tourists in India and callers who speak the aforesaid languages will be directed to call agents proficient in the language concerned.

The 'Incredible India' website is also being updated to make it more tourist-friendly, a ministry release said.