State Tourism Departments, Stake Holders Urged to Help in Poverty Alleviation
The Union Tourism Minister Kumari Selja has urged upon the state tourism departments and stake holders to explore all possible ways for poverty alleviation through tourism. She was speaking at the inauguration of the inter-state regional conference of Tourism Ministers of southern States/UT administrations in Bangalore recently. The Minister said, tourism to her should be all inclusive and bring in visible change in the livelihood of local communities and elevate their economic status. This is what the “responsible tourism” model aims to achieve. She said, tourism plays an important role in most developing as well as developed countries as the main-and sometimes the only- means of economic and social development on a sustainable basis, with meaningful linkages to other productive sectors, such as agriculture and handicrafts. Travel and tourism accounts for 11 per cent the world’s GDP, 8 per cent world’s employment. Indian tourism has been declared the fastest growing, at about 8 per cent, by leading tourism organisations including World Tourism Organisation and World Tourism and Travel Council. “The true potential of tourism lies in responsible practices on both the demand and supply sides of the tourism chain, enabling an effective response to climate change. This is closely interlinked with inclusive growth through sustainable community participation”, she said. “This ‘sustainable’ tourism route has been adopted by the ministry of tourism in the innovative Rural Tourism Project, by strengthening skilled rural artisan communities in association with United Nations Development Programme. We already have 153 Rural Sites selected under this initiative and the results have been encouraging.” Tourism is an important engine for economic growth and the Ministry has launched the “Hunar Se Rojgar” programme to create employable skills in hospitality sector under the Capacity Building Scheme. The programme started simultaneously across the country in Institutes of Hotel Management and Food craft institutes. The Skill Development Programmes started under “Hunar Se Rojgar” will offer short but quality training courses covering Food & Beverage Service and Food Production. The programme has targeted the youth of weaker sections of societies who are interested in joining the hospitality industry and are in need to acquire skills facilitating employment. Linkages with the industry are also being forged so that the youths coming out of this training programmes are gainfully employed. The Conference was convened by the Union Ministry of Tourism to discuss among other things, Rationalization of luxury tax, issues to facilitate seamless travel in Inter-State Circuits, Tourist security and safety, Broad basing of hospitality education and training and initiation for skills training in hospitality sector.
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