Union Tourism Ministers and State Tourism Ministers lighting the lamp at the conference.

Breaking Tourism News…BTN India
Union Minister for Tourism Subodh Kant Sahai inaugurated the Second Western Regional Conference of Tourism Ministers at Aurangabad today. Speaking on the occasion the Minister outlined the vision of the Ministry for developing tourism during the 12th Five Year Plan. This set the tone for the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations to share their developmental plans through comprehensive presentations. The presentations made by the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations highlighted matters relating to development of infrastructure through integrated planning, Public Private Partnership, convergence of resources, man power development, strategies for promoting of intra and interstate domestic tourism, and implementation of code of conduct for “Safe & Honourable Tourism” and “Sustainable Tourism. Prithviraj Chavan, Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Sultan Ahmed, Union Minister of State for Tourism were also present at the inauguration ceremony.

The participating states include Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Chhattisgarh and the Union Territories of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu. The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India has organised the two day conference to bring together all the State Governments, Union Territory Administrations and the private sector stake holders in the western region on a common platform to discuss and take forward a holistic and integrated development of tourism in the region.

R H Khwaja , Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India led the delegation comprising senior officials of the Ministry of Tourism, State Tourism Departments and the private stake holders to a visit to the World Heritage Sites of Ajanta and Ellora. The objective of the visit was to assess the existing infrastructure and the need for further development of these World Heritage Sites.
The significant presence of the private sector representing various trade bodies and Associations like FICCI, CII, TAAI, IATO, HAI, FHRAI, ITTA, etc. reinforces the commitment of all the stake holders towards the success of the public private partnership spirit in the development of tourism.