Attracting tourists! China to get a glimpse of India’s diversity and tourist infrastructure through roadshows

Beijing, August 30: Attracting a wide spectrum of audience and taking a slew of measures to increase the number of tourists visiting India from China, the Tourism Ministry has planned roadshows, a dedicated tourist office, training Mandarin-speaking guides and host roadshows displaying diverse India through roadshows.

The Indian Ministry of Tourism on Wednesday held a big roadshow in Beijing showcasing the country's diversity and tourist infrastructure in a major scale. Tourism Minister K J Alphons made a strong pitch to increase the inflow of Chinese tourists to India as he highlighted India's diversity and assured the best possible security to visitors.

Tourist arrivals from China will be a major focus area in the coming months. China sends out 144 million tourists in a year while India gets only 2.5 lakh of those. To turn around these figures, the ministry has set up a dedicated tourist office in Beijing, which, K J Alphons says, will be functional this month.

Intending to attract major tourist population from China, The minister also invited the Chinese businessmen to invest in India’s growing tourism sector. Addressing the media on questions of safety and security, Alphons said that the maximum efforts are being made to ensure the security of tourist which included a helpline 1363 in 12 languages including Mandarin.

Last year, the helpline received close to 2.75 lakh calls. Also, 14 states in India have formed tourism police to ensure security. Talking about incidents of lynching, the tourism minister said that lynching is bad for the reputation of the country and the government has taken measures to punish these criminals.

The minister also said that he would address the issue of air connectivity between China and India. Currently, 47 foreign and Chinese airlines and five Indian f foreign and Chinese airlines and five Indian flights operate between the two countries.