Efforts being made to ensure India has tourist guides prolific in UN languages: Union Minister Prahlad Patel

Culture and Tourism Minister Prahlad Patel on Thursday said efforts are being made to ensure that India has guides who are prolific in the UN languages so that they can interact with foreign tourists on a one-to-one basis. There are six official languages of the United Nations. These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. "We have decided that wherever more than one lakh foreign tourists visit, if they are not comfortable in Hindi and English, we will have signages in their language. Sometimes when a big group would come, we wouldn't have enough guides speaking those languages… Now, the Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel management on the directions of the PM is trying to ensure that we have guides in the UN languages," he said while virtually inaugurating the Association of Buddhist Tour Operators International Convention. The minister also shared the initiative of having signages in international languages at important Buddhist sites in the country, including signages in Chinese language that have been put up at five Buddhist sites/monuments in Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, since Sanchi receives a large number of tourists from Sri Lanka, signages in Sinhalese language have been put up at the monuments there. He also said that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was working on relisting ancient monuments and the number of such sites could increase from the present 3,691 to around 8,000 to 10,000. The minister said the government has been making special efforts to promote Buddhist tourism in the country. Patel said the ministry has sanctioned more than Rs 350 cr for the development of Buddhist sites under the Swadesh Darshan scheme and over Rs 900 crore has been sanctioned under the PRASHAD scheme. "There are many big sites of tourist interest where there are guides available, but in the smaller sites they are not available. At those sites, we can have a tourist facilitator who can help the tourists. They can give credible information and we are trying to do this," he said. While admitting that the tourism sector has been hit hard due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that to make an estimate of these losses is a challenge, he assured tour operators and other stakeholders that things will get better. "We have urged that the process of easing restrictions on foreign tourists be started so that the tour and travel industry can revive. When the vaccine comes to India, we will issue new guidelines," the minister said. Patel also stated that the Tourism Ministry is making efforts to register accommodation units in the country in the ministry's portal National Integrated Database of Hospitality Industry (NIDHI). Till date, around 32,000 accommodation units have been registered on the portal. "Process is underway to have information related to tourism, such as details about hotels and other facilities at tourist destinations. This portal will also provide information about tours and travels," he said. The minister appealed to tour and travel operators to register themselves with the portal. (Photo Credit: Twitter/prahladspatel)

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Efforts being made to ensure India has tourist guides prolific in UN languages: Union Minister Prahlad Patel

Culture and Tourism Minister Prahlad Patel on Thursday said efforts are being made to ensure that India has guides who are prolific in the UN languages so that they can interact with foreign tourists on a one-to-one basis.

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