Tourism & Hospitality

The following initiatives have been undertaken by GOI:
1. A new category of visa "Medical Visa" has been introduced by Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, which can be given for specific purpose to foreign tourists coming to India for medical treatment
2. The Ministry of Tourism has included the promotion of Medical Tourism as new initiatives. The Marketing Development Assistance Scheme (MDA), administered by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, provides financial support to approved tourism service providers.
3. To boost medical tourism, the government today announced setting up of the National Medical and Wellness Tourism Board to provide help to those visiting the country for health care need. The Board, besides Ministry officials, will include other stakeholders such as hospitals, hoteliers, medical experts and tour operators.

The tourism ministry has sanctioned INR 131 lakhs for the development of four rural tourism sites. The states in which these sites are Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Tripura.

The GOI has identified 78 lighthouses in the country as centres of tourism, which are in the first phase under Public Private Partnership (PPP). The identified lighthouses are in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The GOI has kick started the ‘lighthouse tourism’ project by inviting initial qualification bids to develop eight lighthouses in the first phase, at a cost of INR 128 crore, under the public-private-partnership model for 7 lighthouses.

The ‘PRASAD’ scheme, focuses on development and beautification of the identified pilgrimage destinations. Whereas, in the ‘Spiritual Circuit’ identified under the Swadesh Darshan scheme, the thrust is on development of particular thematic circuit consisting of various religious/spiritual destination in a State and Union Territory.