Ministry of Tourism (India)

The Ministry of Tourism, a branch of the Government of India, is the apex body for the formulation and administration of the rules, regulations and laws relating to the development and promotion of tourism in India. It facilitates the Indian department of tourism. The head of the ministry is the Minister of Tourism (India) held by G. Kishan Reddy. To promote the GDP of the country indirectly and to have friendly relations with them, The Government of India announced officially a Visa on Arrival status/facility for International Visitors to enter/visit India from 43 countries including the United States, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Vanuatu, Singapore, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Russian Federation, Brazil, Finland, Germany, Japan, Myanmar on 27 November 2014 and some more countries to follow soon.

Ministry of Tourism
Agency overview
Formed1967
JurisdictionGovernment of India
HeadquartersMinistry of Tourism
Transport Bhawan
Sansad Marg
New Delhi,110011
New Delhi
Annual budget₹2,150 crore (US$270 million) (2018–19 est.)[1]
Ministers responsible
Websitetourism.gov.in

India stole the limelight at the World Tourism Mart 2011 in London by winning two global awards - World's Leading Destination and World's Leading Tourist Board, Incredible India.[2]

History

The potential for tourism in India was first recognized with the setting up of a Tourist Traffic Committee, an ad-hoc body, in 1948, to suggest ways and means to promote tourism in India. Based on its recommendations, a tourist traffic branch was set up the following year, with regional offices in Delhi and Mumbai, and in 1951, in Kolkata and Chennai. A separate department of tourism under the government was first created on 1 March 1958, that was put under the ambit of the Ministry of Transport and Communications. It was headed by a Director General in the rank of joint secretary. Simultaneously, Tourism Development Council, an advisory body, was constituted and was chaired by the minister in charge of tourism.[3]

After a fall in the number of tourists entering India in 1961 from the preceding year, the government constituted a committee headed by Lakshmi Kant Jha, then secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, under the Ministry of Finance, to find and examine the reasons. The committee attributed it to the Chinese aggression in the backdrop of the Sino-Indian War that year. Subsequently, as per the committee's recommendations, visa norms were liberalized, and the India Tourism Development Corporation was established in 1966 as a functional agency of the Department of Tourism. Further, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi convened a conference in October that year, the deliberations of which resulted in the creation of the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation. Karan Singh was appointed the first minister.[3]

Despite his skills as an orator and scholarly knowledge in the Sanskrit language, Singh failed to take tourism on a growing path during the initial years, owing mostly to failure in getting funds for the promotion and infrastructure of tourism. He subsequently persuaded Air India to get their officers involved in promotion of tourism to India. Region-wise targets for arrivals were given and Air India chiefs were given powers to oversee the working of overseas tourist offices of India; 'Operation Europe' for the said region was later extended to other areas. Air India's failure to take this forward owing to losses in revenue "collision" of "egos of tourist officers" led to slump in the growth of tourism. Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi later took charge of the ministry before quitting in favour of other ministers who, Pran Nath Seth in Successful Tourism wrote, "felt that the tourism portfolio was a demotion", as Civil Aviation was separated from the ministry. During this time, the Tourism was tied with Commerce Ministry, and later under V. P. Singh's ministry, in 1991 with Agriculture,[4] when it was headed by Chaudhary Devi Lal. It was again tied with Civil Aviation that year, headed by Madhavrao Scindia, before the Deve Gowda government in 1996 attached it with the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.[4] Tourism was then combined with culture portfolio when it was headed by Jagmohan. The latter was separated in 2002 and an independent ministry for tourism has been active since.[3]

List of ministers of tourism
# Portrait Name Term of office Prime Minister Party
1 Raj Bahadur 31 July 1965 24 January 1966 177 days Lal Bahadur Shastri Indian National Congress
2 Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy 24 January 1966 13 March 1967 1 year, 48 days Indira Gandhi
3 Karan Singh 13 March 1967 9 November 1973 6 years, 241 days
(1) Raj Bahadur 9 November 1973 22 December 1976 3 years, 43 days
4 Kotha Raghuramaiah 23 December 1976 24 March 1977 91 days
5 Purushottam Kaushik 26 March 1977 15 July 1979 2 years, 111 days Morarji Desai
Janata Party
6 Mohammad Shafi Qureshi 30 July 1979 14 January 1980 168 days Charan Singh
Indian National Congress (U)
7 Janaki Ballabh Patnaik 14 January 1980 7 June 1980 145 days Indira Gandhi Indian National Congress
8 Anant Sharma 19 October 1980 2 September 1982 1 year, 318 days
9 Khurshed Alam Khan
(Independent Charge)		 2 September 1982 31 December 1984 2 years, 120 days
10 Rajiv Gandhi 31 December 1984 14 January 1985 14 days Rajiv Gandhi
11 H. K. L. Bhagat 25 September 1985 12 May 1986 229 days
12 Mufti Mohammad Sayeed 12 May 1986 15 July 1987 1 year, 64 days
(10) Rajiv Gandhi 15 July 1987 25 July 1987 10 days
13 Jagdish Tytler
(Independent Charge)		 25 July 1987 14 February 1988 204 days
14 Mohsina Kidwai 14 February 1988 25 June 1988 132 days
15 Shivraj Patil
(Independent Charge)		 25 June 1988 2 December 1989 1 year, 160 days
16 Arun Nehru 6 December 1989 10 November 1990 339 days V. P. Singh
Janata Dal
17 Devi Lal 21 November 1990 21 June 1991 212 days Chandra Shekhar
Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)
18 Madhavrao Scindia 21 June 1991 9 January 1993 1 year, 202 days P. V. Narasimha Rao Indian National Congress
19 Ghulam Nabi Azad 9 January 1993 16 May 1996 3 years, 128 days
20 V. Dhananjay Kumar 16 May 1996 1 June 1996 16 days Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Bharatiya Janata Party
21 C. M. Ibrahim 1 June 1996 29 June 1996 28 days H. D. Deve Gowda
Janata Dal
22 Srikant Kumar Jena 29 June 1996 19 March 1998 1 year, 263 days I. K. Gujral
23 Madan Lal Khurana 19 March 1998 30 January 1999 317 days Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Bharatiya Janata Party
24 Ananth Kumar 30 January 1999 13 October 1999 256 days
25 Uma Bharti
(Independent Charge)		 13 October 1999 2 February 2000 112 days
(24) Ananth Kumar 2 February 2000 1 September 2001 1 year, 211 days
26 Jagmohan 1 September 2001 22 May 2004 2 years, 264 days
27 Renuka Chowdhury
(Independent Charge)		 23 May 2004 29 January 2006 1 year, 251 days Manmohan Singh Indian National Congress
28 Ambika Soni 29 January 2006 22 May 2009 3 years, 113 days
29 Selja Kumari 28 May 2009 19 January 2011 1 year, 236 days
30 Subodh Kant Sahay 19 January 2011 28 October 2012 1 year, 283 days
31 Chiranjeevi
(Independent Charge)		 28 October 2012 26 May 2014 1 year, 210 days
32 Shripad Naik
(Independent Charge)		 26 May 2014 9 November 2014 167 days Narendra Modi
Bharatiya Janata Party
33 Mahesh Sharma
(Independent Charge)		 9 November 2014 3 September 2017 2 years, 298 days
34 Alphons Kannanthanam
(Independent Charge)		 3 September 2017 30 May 2019 1 year, 269 days
35 Prahlad Singh Patel
(Independent Charge)		 30 May 2019 7 July 2021 2 years, 38 days
36 G. Kishan Reddy 7 July 2021 Incumbent 2 years, 110 days

List of ministers of state
Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism
Minister of state Portrait Political party Term Years
Ashok Gehlot Indian National Congress 31 December 1984 26 September 1985 269 days
Shripad Naik Bharatiya Janata Party 7 July 2021 Incumbent 2 years, 110 days
Ajay Bhatt 7 July 2021 Incumbent 2 years, 110 days

Department of Tourism (state ministers)
S.No State Name Party
1. Andhra Pradesh R.K Roja YSRCP
2. Arunachal Pradesh Nakap Nalo BJP
3. Assam Bimal Bora BJP
4. Bihar Bimal Bora JD(U)
5. Chhattisgarh Durg Gramin INC
6. Delhi Manish Sisodia AAP
7. Goa Rohan Khaunte BJP
8. Gujarat Mulu Ayar Bera BJP
9. Haryana Kanwar Pal Gujjar BJP
10. Himachal Pradesh incumbent INC
11. Jharkhand Hafizul Hasan JMM
12. Karnataka Anand Singh BJP
13. Kerala P. A. Mohammed Riyas CPI(M)
14. Madhya Pradesh Usha Thakur BJP
15. Maharashtra Mangal Lodha BJP
16. Manipur incumbent BJP
17. Meghalaya incumbent NPP
18. Mizoram Robert Romawia Royte MNF
19. Nagaland incumbent BJP
20. Odisha Aswini Kumar Patra BJD
21. Puducherry K. Lakshminarayanan NRC
22. Punjab Anmol Gagan Maan AAP
23. Rajasthan Vishvendra Singh INC
24. Sikkim Bedu Singh Panth SKM
25. Tamil Nadu K. Ramachandran DMK
26. Telangana incumbent BRS
27. Tripura Pranjit Singha Roy BJP
28. Uttar Pradesh Jaiveer Singh BJP
29. Uttarakhand Satpal Maharaj BJP
30. West Bengal Babul Supriyo AITC

Campaigns

Incredible India
Main article: Incredible India

In 2022,The Ministry of Tourism's joint secretary Chandu Burusu IAS collaborated with Ogilvy & Mather to create the Incredible India marketing initiative, aiming to promote India's image as a high-end tourist destination.[5]

Incredible India 2.0 was launched on September 27, 2017 by President Ram Nath Kovind, on the occasion of World Tourism Day.[6]

Cleanliness Index

Union Tourism Ministry is planning to introduce "Cleanliness Index" for all cities in India. This index will declare the best performers which will motivate other cities to work on this aspect of their appeal. The methodology has been already formulated and will be implemented in 6 cities on a pilot basis.[7]

Tourism campaign at ITB Berlin

In 2011, Indian tourism department had launched a major tourism campaign at the ITB Berlin (the world's largest travel trade show) under the guidance of Mr Sanjay Kothari and Mr Anand Kumar and Mr M.N. Javed.[8]

Organisation

Statutory Professional Bodies

Autonomous Bodies

Central Public Sector Undertakings

See also

Notes
  1. "Budget data" (PDF). www.indiabudget.gov.in. 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  2. "News18.com: CNN-News18 Breaking News India, Latest News Headlines, Live News Updates". News18. Archived from the original on 11 November 2011.
  3. Seth, Prem Nath (2006). Successful Tourism: Volume I: Fundamentals of Tourism. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. pp. 214–217. ISBN 9788120731998. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  4. Seth, Pran Nath; Bhat, Sushma Seth (2003). An Introduction To Travel And Tourism. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. p. 64. ISBN 9788120724822. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  5. "Incredible India Campaign". Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  6. "President launches Incredible India 2.0 Campaign; 'Adopt a Heritage' Project". The Hindu: Business Line. 27 September 2017.
  7. Retrieved from 'The Hindu' on 20 September 2014
  8. PTI. "India launches tourism campaign at ITB Berlin". @businessline. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
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