New Delhi, Jan 23 – India and Japan have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for strengthening cooperation in the field of tourism, which would expand and further facilitate travel and tourist visits between the two nations.
It will also further strengthen the tourism partnership between the two countries, Japan Tourism Agency’s Commissioner, Shigeto Kubo said.
The MoU was signed here between India’s Ministry of Tourism, and the Japan Tourism Agency, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Secretary, Ministry of Tourism in his capacity as Director General, Tourism, Parvez Dewan signed on behalf of India and Shigeto Kubo for Japan.
Parvez said that religious tourism in the form of Buddhist heritage sites is a great attraction for Japanese tourists to India.
He said that Japanese tourists have been availing visa-on-arrival in a major way and the highest number of visas on arrival was issued to the tourists from Japan during 2013, as in previous years.
Japan is an important source market for Indian Tourism. During 2013, India received 220,000 tourists from Japan.
This Memorandum between India and Japan is intended to serve as the key instrument for greater action oriented cooperation and further strengthening the close tourism partnership between the two countries.
Among the main objectives are to expand bilateral cooperation in the tourism sector; to exchange information and data related to tourism and encourage cooperation between tour operators and tourism stakeholders including hotel owners.
– Bernama
