TBM Staff - Mumbai IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently felicitated Valsa Nair Singh (IAS), Principal Secretary, Tourism, Civil Aviation and State Excise, Government of Maharashtra, for outstanding contribution in promoting tourism in Maharashtra.
Speaking at the event, Farhat Jamal, Chairman, IMC Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Committee, Ashwini Kakkar, Former MD & CEO Thomas Cook India, Chairman, Action Against Hunger International Network, Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India and Sheldon Santwan, Editor & COO, Saffron Synergies Pvt Ltd shared their thoughts about Valsa Nair Singh’s active engagement, remarkable contribution to the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry and personal experiences of working with her over the years.
While addressing the gathering, Singh opined that “to travel is to live”. She stated that the hospitality industry has received a fillip with the Government reducing the permission required to start a new hotel or restaurant from 72 to just 09. Further, applications for all these license/permit can be submitted online. She also shared that the state cabinet has awarded the hospitality sector the status of an industry. The decision will help revive the hospitality sector, which will be eligible for various benefits including rebates in water and property taxes, with regard to electricity charges it is under consideration.
Singh stated that in order to bounce back the tourism sector in the state, the government has introduced the responsible tourism initiative along with encouraging policies such as the caravan tourism, agro tourism policy, beach shack policy and adventure tourism policy. Further, she shared that the government has taken efforts in building infrastructure, skilling in tourism, policy level interventions and planning aggressive marketing strategies to boost the State Tourism. She added that the government is exploring the opportunity to work on Public Private Partnership (PPP) models and have identified 30 new tourist properties which will be developed under the PPP model.
