The Ministry of Tourism in its ongoing efforts to strengthen the Hospitality & Tourism Industry especially in the times of the pandemic, has signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MakeMyTrip and Ibibo. The Ministry has already signed MoUs with Easy my Trip, Clear trip and Yatra.com.
The primary objective of this MoU is to provide an extensive visibility to accommodation units, which have self-certified themselves on SAATHI (System for Assessment, Awareness & Training for the Hospitality Industry) on the OTA platform. The MoU also outlines both parties to encourage Units to register on NIDHI and thereby on SAATHI and encourage local tourism Industry with appropriate safeguards for curbing spread of COVID-19. The idea is also to gather more information on accommodation units in order to gain actionable insights & designing evidence based & targeted policy measures and to promote safe, honourable and sustainable tourism.
The event was organized under the arrangement between Ministry of Tourism and Quality Council of India (QCI) for implementing measures for strengthening the Indian Hospitality & Tourism Industry.
The signing MoU was done in the presence of Rakesh Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism; Sanjay Singh, Deputy Director General (H&R), Ministry of Tourism; Dr. A Raj, Senior Director, QCI; Mohit Singh, Deputy Director, QCI; Dr. Mahavir Prasad Tiwari, Deputy Director, QCI; Abhishek Logani, Chief Business Officer-Hotels, MakeMyTrip (India) & Ibibo Group and Venkatesh Ramakrishna, SVP – Corporate Affairs, MakeMyTrip (India) & Ibibo Group.
The Ministry and MakeMyTrip (India) & Ibibo Group will endeavour to take necessary steps to encourage and promote strategic and technical co-operation in the Indian hospitality & tourism sector for overall benefit in the identified areas through the MoU. It is expected, that, in the future more OTAs will come forward for signing such MOUs in order to strengthen the Hospitality & Tourism Industry of India.