K J Alphons, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism said that the tourism sector alone has created 14.62 million job opportunities in the country in the last four years. Addressing the media in New Delhi yesterday, the Minister further elaborated that the tourism sector provides opportunities to skilled as well as unskilled job seekers thereby providing employment to all sections of the society.
Alphons added that his ministry is now focusing on promotional activities to bring attention of the tourists about the unexplored areas of North Eastern states of India, like the largest cave network of Asia which is in Meghalaya. Refuting the recent reports in the media on ‘Safety of women in India’, he ascertained that India is safe for tourists and added that Ministry also has taken various initiatives to ensure safety and security of tourists. In view of this, the Minister said that guidelines on Safety and Security of Tourists have been issued for States/UTs and 14 states already have Tourist Police in one form or other.
Alphons added that in order to promote the country abroad, the Ministry has conducted several ‘Incredible India road shows’ in the US, Europe and few upcoming ones in China and Nordic countries. He further added that three theme based 60 seconds Incredible India videos has been released till date and it has received huge viewership in social media platforms.
The Minister also added that more focus is given to the Cruise Tourism sector with the Tourism Ministry investing Rs. 100 crore and the Shipping Ministry contributing a corpus of Rs. 250 crore to the sector. The cruise ports are being developed at Mumbai where it is along with an entertainment complex, and also Cruise jetties in Goa, Cochin, Chennai and Visakhapatnam.
