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India has a lot to offer to high-spending tourists and every state needs to change its tourism policy to align with this thought, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.
He made the remarks addressing a post-Budget webinar on the subject 'Developing Tourism in Mission Mode'. This was the seventh of the series of 12 webinars being organised by the government. The objective behind hosting the webinars is to seek ideas and suggestions for the effective implementation of the initiatives announced in the Union Budget 2023. PM Modi gave the example of bird watchers who camp in the country for months and underlined that policies should be made to target such potential tourists. In that context, PM Modi underlined the need to think out of the box and plan ahead to take tourism in India to new heights. Throwing light on the parameters before a tourist destination is developed, the Prime Minister listed out the potential of the place, ease of travelling to the destination, and new ways to promote the destination. He also gave the example of the Ramayan Circuit, Buddha Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Northeast Circuit, Gandhi Circuit, and pilgrimages of all saints, and stressed the need to work together collectively on this. Throwing the spotlight on the increasing number of foreign tourists in India, PM Modi noted the growing attraction towards India and informed that 8 lakh foreign tourists have come to India in January this year compared to only 2 lakhs in January last year. Further, highlighting the basic challenge of the tourism sector, he said lack of professional tourist guides here and stressed the need for certificate courses in local colleges for guides. (ANI)
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