BENGALURU, Oct 28: Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Thursday hailed the country’s milestone of administering 100 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses by calling it a victory of ‘Corona warriors’, “new India” and the spirit of cooperative federalism.
Addressing a tourism conference here, he asserted that there can be no bigger confidence booster for revival of tourism than vaccination against COVID-19.
The Union culture and tourism minister congratulated each and every citizen of the country on India achieving the milestone in its vaccination drive against COVID-19.
“We have witnessed the victory of scientists, victory of healthcare workers and the collective spirit of 130 crore Indians. It is a victory of ‘new India’ and team India; and a victory of the spirit of cooperative federalism, and of our Corona warriors,” Reddy said.
He said vaccination against COVID-19 and tourism will go together in the current scenario, and without vaccination, tourism will not survive and no tourists will come.
“We should use challenging times as an opportunity to rethink, regenerate and reinvent the tourism sector,” the minister said.
A two-day conference of tourism and culture ministers of southern India began in Bengaluru on Thursday, aiming to apprise various stakeholders about the projects and initiatives being taken by the Centre for the development of the region.
The conference is taking place three months after the Ramappa temple at Palampet in Telangana’s Warangal was conferred the tag of UNESCO World Heritage site.
The temple, a 13th century engineering marvel named after its architect, Ramappa, was proposed by the government as its only nomination for the UNESCO World Heritage site tag in 2019.
Reddy said the government’s decision to scale up vaccination at this speed was to ensure that both lives and livelihoods are protected.
The event, hosted by the Tourism Ministry is in line with the Prime Minister’s idea of cooperative federalism where the government of India and the state governments come together to find solutions for a better India.
To utilise this huge advantage that our country has, the Ministry of Tourism has taken several measures to boost tourism and also encourage investment, he said.
The initiatives include a National Tourism Policy that “we wish to unveil after close consultations with states and all stakeholders”, he said.
Also, it includes consultations to provide industry status to various tourism projects, unsecured loans of Rs 10 lakh to tour operators and Rs 1 lakh to tourist guides who have been affected by the pandemic; and a new data-driven Incredible India 2.0 campaign, Reddy added.
Also, five lakh free visas will be provided to foreign visitors once international travel opens up while e-Visas will be extended to 169 countries, he said.
Tourism Minister of Tamil Nadu M Mathiventhan, Tourism Minister of Telangana Srinivas Goud, Tourism Minister of Karnataka Anand Singh and Tourism Minister of Puducherry K Lakshminarayan also addressed the event.
Union Minister of State for Tourism Ajay Bhatt, senior officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Railway Ministry and various other departments, besides, industry stakeholders also attended the conference on its opening day.
Describing South India’s cultural heritage as a “treasure trove”, Reddy hailed the recent listing of the Ramappa Temple as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (PTI)
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