India’s Growing Tourism Infrastructure: Ambassador Swaika’s Perspective

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Indian Embassy organizes ‘Exploring Incredible India’ symposium to promote tourism

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 11: The Embassy of India in Kuwait organized a significant B2B event titled ‘Exploring Incredible India’ to promote tourism to India, at the Millennium Hotel & Convention Centre.

The symposium showcased presentations from esteemed Destination Management Companies and well-known hoteliers from renowned Indian hotel chains like Taj, Oberoi, and Leela.

The Tourism Symposium garnered substantial participation, particularly from various stakeholders, notably heads and representatives of over 150 travel agencies from Kuwait. Eminent travel bloggers and travelers from Kuwait also shared their enriching experiences of visiting India during the event.

Moreover, the event provided a vibrant and information-packed interaction through engaging panel discussions, presentations, videos, and dedicated B2B networking sessions.

HE Dr. Adarsh Swaika, the Ambassador of India, emphasized the immense potential for tourism in India. He highlighted India’s ‘complete tourism experience’ and stressed on the abundance of natural beauty and diverse tourist destinations, world-class tourism infrastructure, Indian cultural ethos, convenient travel facilitated by digital applications, and cost-effectiveness compared to similar offerings in other countries, adding India is “THE COUNTRY’ — home to as many as 42 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and many more are yet to be included.

He disclosed, that today, India can boast of world-class tourism infrastructure whether it is luxury hotels, luxury trains, luxury cruises, air connectivity, or road transport. The latest sector to join in this category is rail transport. And the statistics themselves speak for it – around 200 5-star hotels, 150 airports, and 8500 railway stations. Road connectivity with 6 highways practically covers the length and breadth of the country. The introduction of modern high-speed Vande Bharat trains has opened up travel by rail as an attractive option.

Apart from destination choice and world-class infrastructure, the soft dose of Indian cultural ethos, and seeing unity in diversity, India can offer such a varied experience in terms of all that encompasses Indian culture – festivals, traditions, language, food, shopping, etc.

This comes with the sheer ease of travel with the digital transformation that has taken place in India — pay for almost everything from ticket bookings to the hotel to shopping to entry tickets through mobile apps without the need to carry currency notes or credit cards, he said.

The Indian envoy also emphasized the ease of obtaining an Indian tourist visa, particularly the provision of a six-month multiple-entry tourist visa within a single day by the Indian Embassy in Kuwait.

Representatives from the Indian travel and hotel industry vividly described various tourism options, luxury destinations, and theme-based circuits such as summer, winter, adventure, spa and wellness, nature, culture, and shopping.

They also presented end-to-end travel solutions and packages. The Kuwaiti tour operators were briefed comprehensively about these options and were provided with informative brochures and booklets for dissemination.

To maximize outreach, the event was live-streamed on Embassy social media platforms for the broader Kuwaiti audience.

Additionally, an e-brochure detailing different facets of Indian tourism was unveiled by the Ambassador and is now available on the Embassy’s website and social media platforms.

The Embassy intends to sustain efforts to disseminate information about tourism to India through subsequent follow-up events and activities.

By Paul Francis X. Fernandes
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff

This news has been read 2425 times!