'Hotel motel Patel wallas' in US should promote 'Incredible India': PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the Gujarati Patel community in the US popular as "hotel motel Patel wallas" can help promote India as a tourist destination among their guests by putting slides about the country on their hotel TVs.

Addressing Saurashtra Patel Cultural Samaj of the US via video-conference, Modi urged each NRI to inspire five foreign families to visit India to give a boost to tourism.

"You are known as the people of 'hotel motel Patel wallas'. Whenever you get a guest in your hotel or motel, why don't you put a few slides of India on TV. When the guests turns on the TV they will be able to see what India is," Modi said.

Patel community, which originally hails from Gujarat, are mostly into the motel business in the US. A 2014 article in the reputed Smithsonian magazine had said that at least half of America's motels are owned by Indian Americans, and of that 70 per cent are owned by Patels.

Modi urged the NRIs to contribute for the growth of the country when it is on the "rapid path of progress."