Tourism chief says Indian tourism focused on inclusive development
Describing sustainable, safe and honourable tourism as the pillars of India's strategy, at a UNWTO meeting, Indian Tourism Minister Subodh kant Sahai, said the schemes and programmes implemented by Indian government are primarily focused on inclusive development, integrated with the overall anti-poverty strategy.
“It has been estimated that by the year 2016-17, the growth in the tourism sector would enable additional employment generation of around 25 million persons. There would be a need for additional 42 million skilled persons in hospitality sector alone.”
"We are therefore giving a major boost to the skill development in the sector by harnessing both public and private sector educational and training infrastructure of the country. We are also encouraging our academic institutes to go in for MOU's with reputed counterparts of other countries for achieving academic excellence," Sahai said.
Seeking the UNWTO’s active role in skill development programme, the minister said, "I would urge UNWTO to intensify its efforts in providing the support to member countries in developing a skill development framework based on successful best practices across the globe."
He said the government is in process of establishment of Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI) and indicators for the accommodation sector and tour operators.
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