Ananth Kumar Says New Tourism Policy In A Month

The government will come out with a new national tourism policy which will address issues faced by the travel and hospitality industry. "The new tourism policy will be announced within a month," minister of tourism and culture Ananth Kumar said while inaugurating the 16th annual convention of Indian Association of Tourist Operators. He also emphasised the need for greater coordination among states to promote tourism in the country. Kumar announced that tate tourism summits in various states would be organised to have an integrated tourism development programme. "The first of such summit will be held in Rajasthan soon," he said. On marketing India as a destination, Kumar said, "Many issues have to be thrashed out on the image of India as compared to several Southeast Asian countries." There has been improvement in the domestic tourism sector recently with 175 million tourists traveling across the country. In his key note address, minister of state for information and broadcasting Arun Jaitley stressed on improvement of infrastructure. He said the travel and hospitality sectors need to be more visitor-friendly. "The kind of airlines service we provide is certainly not the best," he said, adding that there was a need to improve air connectivity to attract tourists. He also said the media should avoid sensationalism while reporting incidents of violence in trouble-torn states like Jammu and Kashmir as media hype has often hampered tourism.