Review Meeting of Tourism Department : New Tourism Policy Will Be Brought Soon: CM

Jaipur, August 5. Chief Minister Shri Ashok Gehlot has said that Rajasthan is prominent tourism centre. Livelihood of lakhs of people in the State depends on tourism. With the aim to promote tourism activities the State Government will soon bring a new Tourism Policy, he said. This policy will help in bringing back the tourism sector which is currently facing crisis due to COVID-19, on the tracks. 

Shri Gehlot was reviewing the Tourism Department through video conference from his official residence on Wednesday. He interacted with district-level officers of the tourism department and invited their suggestions to give pace to tourism. 

He said “Fairs and festivals are our cultural heritage; we need to give them new look and introduce new things so that more and more domestic and foreign tourists can be attracted. Rebranding of our fairs and festivals including Pushkar Fair, Desert Festival, Kumbhalgarh and Bundi Festival should be done. With introducing new thinking, activities should be included to attract tourists.” 

The Chief Minister said that Rajasthan has a large number of religious sites which are ancient and are importance from the archaeological point of view. Officers should prepare an outline to develop these religious sites keeping in view increase in tourism. He asked officials to find permanent solution to solve the water problem in Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur. 

Shri Gehlot said that tourists have to face lot of problems due to lapka menace at the tourist spots and complaints of cheating should be properly dealt with. Effective action should be taken to solve this problem. He said that special attention should be paid on cleanliness at the tourist spots. 

Minister of State for Tourism Shri Govind Singh Dotasara said that innovations such as virtual seminar, online visit of temples could be adopted to attract tourists at this time of crisis. The draft of new tourism policy is ready and will be finalised by the end of this month, he said. 

Chief Secretary Shri Rajeeva Swarup said that the tourism sector is worst affected due to COVID-19. The Government is making efforts to give pace to this sector. Some economic activities have been permitted under the Unlock period. 

Principal Secretary, Tourism Shri Alok Gupta gave a detailed presentation on the departmental activities. He said around 40 lakh people are associated with tourism sector directly or indirectly. This sector has a major contribution to the State’s GDP. The department is making continuous efforts to promote tourism in the State. 

Additional Chief Secretary Finance Shri Niranjan Arya, Commissioner Information and Public Relations Shri Mahendra Soni and other officers from tourism department were present in the meeting.