Selja unveils agenda for 100 days of Ministry of Tourism
Minister of Tourism Kumari Selja here today unveiled agenda for the first 100 days of Ministry of Tourism. Minister of state for Tourism Shri Sultan Ahmed and senior officials of the Ministry were also present on the occasion. Following are the initiatives announced by the Minister of Tourism Kumari Selja:
Human Resource Development in Hospitality Sector
1. Skill Training of Youth in Hospitality: The Institutes of Hotel Management (IHMs) are initiating a six to eight week fast track skill training programme for youth under twenty five years of age, who are at least eighth pass. These programmes would be in food production and food and beverage services. It is expected that after this training, the participants would be able to get gainful employment in the growing hospitality / hotel sector. It is estimated that 1000 fresh youths would be trained in the next three months and around 5000 youths would be trained in the year.
2. Skill Certification: Ministry of Tourism has initiated the Scheme for Certification of skills of those service providers who are working in the hospitality sector. Under the scheme, the service providers opting for certification would undertake a three day orientation programme followed by test, that would be based on practical and viva voce. Those who pass the test would be provided a certificate (recognizing them as MoT certified service provider), which would make them more employable in the market. A minimum of 1250 service providers would be certified in the next three months and above 5000 in the year.
Reforms in Hospitality Education:
3. Implementation of decentralized online counseling for IHMs: The counseling process for the students in the IHMs was earlier done centrally at Delhi through a manual system. It was time consuming and also lead to additional financial burden on the students and their guardians.
From this year onward, National Council of Hotel Management & Catering Technology (NCHMCT), in collaboration with National Informatics Centre (NIC), is implementing the process of decentralized online counseling. The students now have a facility to undertake the on line counseling process at seven identified Institutes of Hotel Management (IHMs) all over the country i.e. Chandigarh, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai and Hyderabad.
4. Semesterization of IHMs: The academic calendar of the IHMs would now be converted into two semesters for each year to make it at par with other premier institutions of the country. It is anticipated that the semester system would bring more professionalism in the courses and also lead to increased attention and interest of the students in academics.
Domestic Tourism
5. To promote ‘Domestic Tourism’, the Ministry would release the generic Incredible India Campaign in the Electronic Media to create awareness of the Indian Tourism product in the domestic market. The 60 sec TV commercial would be aired as per approved Media Plan.
Road shows would also be organized in collaboration with private sector participation for promotion of domestic tourism in six regions of North, South, West, Central, East and North-East.
Developing Niche Tourism Products:
6. Caravan Tourism: A new policy guideline to promote ‘Caravan Tourism’ in India and facilitate the infrastructure required for Caravan Tourism would be announced.
7. Wellness Tourism: A new policy guideline for promoting ‘Wellness Tourism’ in India would be announced. The policy would aim to leverage India’s potential in traditional systems of wellness and medicines like Ayurveda, Siddha and Yoga and project India as a unique destination for spiritual healing. Wellness Tourism Road Shows would also be organized in Overseas markets starting with Scandinavian countries in the first phase, in last week of August, 2009.
8. Heliport Tourism: With a view to promote tourism in hilly and remote areas, guidelines would be framed to provide central financial assistance to States/UTs for construction of helipads/heliports at selected destinations which have tourism potential but lack good connectivity.
Inter-State Regional Conference for Development and Promotion of Tourism:
9. In order to ensure that development of tourism takes place in a holistic and integrated way and inter-state bottlenecks are removed, four inter-state regional conferences would be held, at least once a year with Union Minister of Tourism/Minister of State of Tourism as Chairperson. The conference would be held for North- Central, East-Northeast, Southern and Western Region of India.
The State Tourism Minister, Chief Secretary and Secretary, Tourism of States/UTs and other stakeholders would participate in these conferences. The progress of tourism development projects, interstate issues to facilitate seamless travel, new policies, issues, initiatives concerning tourism sector would be discussed in these conferences.
Minister of Tourism Kumari Selja here today unveiled agenda for the first 100 days of Ministry of Tourism. Minister of state for Tourism Shri Sultan Ahmed and senior officials of the Ministry were also present on the occasion. Following are the initiatives announced by the Minister of Tourism Kumari Selja:
Human Resource Development in Hospitality Sector
1. Skill Training of Youth in Hospitality: The Institutes of Hotel Management (IHMs) are initiating a six to eight week fast track skill training programme for youth under twenty five years of age, who are at least eighth pass. These programmes would be in food production and food and beverage services. It is expected that after this training, the participants would be able to get gainful employment in the growing hospitality / hotel sector. It is estimated that 1000 fresh youths would be trained in the next three months and around 5000 youths would be trained in the year.
2. Skill Certification: Ministry of Tourism has initiated the Scheme for Certification of skills of those service providers who are working in the hospitality sector. Under the scheme, the service providers opting for certification would undertake a three day orientation programme followed by test, that would be based on practical and viva voce. Those who pass the test would be provided a certificate (recognizing them as MoT certified service provider), which would make them more employable in the market. A minimum of 1250 service providers would be certified in the next three months and above 5000 in the year.
Reforms in Hospitality Education:
3. Implementation of decentralized online counseling for IHMs: The counseling process for the students in the IHMs was earlier done centrally at Delhi through a manual system. It was time consuming and also lead to additional financial burden on the students and their guardians.
From this year onward, National Council of Hotel Management & Catering Technology (NCHMCT), in collaboration with National Informatics Centre (NIC), is implementing the process of decentralized online counseling. The students now have a facility to undertake the on line counseling process at seven identified Institutes of Hotel Management (IHMs) all over the country i.e. Chandigarh, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai and Hyderabad.
4. Semesterization of IHMs: The academic calendar of the IHMs would now be converted into two semesters for each year to make it at par with other premier institutions of the country. It is anticipated that the semester system would bring more professionalism in the courses and also lead to increased attention and interest of the students in academics.
Domestic Tourism
5. To promote ‘Domestic Tourism’, the Ministry would release the generic Incredible India Campaign in the Electronic Media to create awareness of the Indian Tourism product in the domestic market. The 60 sec TV commercial would be aired as per approved Media Plan.
Road shows would also be organized in collaboration with private sector participation for promotion of domestic tourism in six regions of North, South, West, Central, East and North-East.
Developing Niche Tourism Products:
6. Caravan Tourism: A new policy guideline to promote ‘Caravan Tourism’ in India and facilitate the infrastructure required for Caravan Tourism would be announced.
7. Wellness Tourism: A new policy guideline for promoting ‘Wellness Tourism’ in India would be announced. The policy would aim to leverage India’s potential in traditional systems of wellness and medicines like Ayurveda, Siddha and Yoga and project India as a unique destination for spiritual healing. Wellness Tourism Road Shows would also be organized in Overseas markets starting with Scandinavian countries in the first phase, in last week of August, 2009.
8. Heliport Tourism: With a view to promote tourism in hilly and remote areas, guidelines would be framed to provide central financial assistance to States/UTs for construction of helipads/heliports at selected destinations which have tourism potential but lack good connectivity.
Inter-State Regional Conference for Development and Promotion of Tourism:
9. In order to ensure that development of tourism takes place in a holistic and integrated way and inter-state bottlenecks are removed, four inter-state regional conferences would be held, at least once a year with Union Minister of Tourism/Minister of State of Tourism as Chairperson. The conference would be held for North- Central, East-Northeast, Southern and Western Region of India.
The State Tourism Minister, Chief Secretary and Secretary, Tourism of States/UTs and other stakeholders would participate in these conferences. The progress of tourism development projects, interstate issues to facilitate seamless travel, new policies, issues, initiatives concerning tourism sector would be discussed in these conferences.
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