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E-visa facility will be rolled out by October at nine airports in the country, Union Tourism Minister Shripad Yesso Naik said on Thursday.
The minister was speaking to reporters at the State Tourism Ministers’ Conference held in the Capital.
"The e-visa facility will be open to all countries in the world except 10," Tourism Secretary Parvez Dewan said.
Naik added, “The Ministry of Tourism has committed to the Home Ministry of all support required towards setting up of infrastructure at the nine designated airports. The MOT officials along with MHA, Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airport Operators Association have physically inspected the nine airports and reviewed the progress of work towards placement of the necessary infrastructure.”
In order to address the issue of safety and security of tourists, especially of women travellers, the Ministry is working on formulating a set of guidelines for the State Governments and UTs. The guidelines include tips for travellers and also safety guidelines for adventure activities.
The minister said that efforts are on to setup a 24x7 ‘Tourist info line/Contact centre’ which will mainly serve those who know very little about India or about travel within India.
The ministry has also simplified the Hotel Approval & Classification guidelines. “Till now we were insisting on a series of approvals/documents from the applicants. This will now be done away and only the presentation of the 'Trade Licence' would suffice for classifying hotels in the form of star ratings,” Naik said.
Apart from this, a specialized course in tourism will be started for capacity building. “We are also in the process of setting up a University of Hospitality towards this end. We have also partnered with Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland to upgrade our education standards," Naik said.
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