Improved law and order situation vital to harness tourism potential: Lok Sabha Speaker

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday called for better law and order situation to increase tourist inflow in India.

Addressing the participants in the 'National Conference on Tourist Police' organized by the Ministry of Tourism here in the national capital, Birla opined that a country with improved law and order situation attracts more tourists.

"Therefore, it is necessary to train the police in this regard," Birla said.

He further said that the relations of the tourist police with the tourists should be friendly and with the expansion of tourism, facilities and security should be increased for the visiting tourists.

Emphasizing on the need for learning languages by tourist police, Birla said that language is a medium to connect us with culture and country, therefore, all tourist places should have multilingual tourist helpline facilities, which can provide information to tourists in their language. Simultaneously, tourist guides, especially female guides, should be multilingual.

Referring to the potential of tourism in the country, Birla observed that India is a country full of natural resources, historical sites, archaeological monuments, and religious places, which are famous for tourism globally.

He mentioned that "in today's times, tourism is not limited to travel only, rather India is known all over the world as a hub of spirituality, Yoga, Ayurveda and Naturopathy".

Lauding India's growing profile in various fields, Birla opined that India is emerging as an important destination for ecotourism, business tourism and education tourism along with medical tourism.

Talking about increasing digitization in the tourism sector, Birla said that in the information era, tourists ordinarily get every information related to their travel through mobile.

In this regard, Birla emphasized developing a mobile application which provides all relevant information related to the tourists to their destinations in multiple languages.

He said that to ensure safe and comfortable travel, this app should provide updated and complete information about hotels, taxis, and guides, among other facilities, and facilitate police assistance whenever needed.

Birla stressed on the need for quick police action in cases of crimes against tourists, saying that such steps increase the confidence of tourists and create a good environment.

Birla welcomed the establishment of tourism police by several state governments from the point of view of tourism security and advised all the States and the Central Government to share best practices among themselves.

Regarding giving better security to the tourists, Birla said that it is necessary to give adequate training to the tourist police for effective security and these police personnel should have knowledge of many languages and use of new technology.

Referring to the hosting of the upcoming G20 summit by India, Birla said that the Heads of States, leaders, and officials of the G20 countries will visit major tourist destinations of the country. This event will give us an opportunity to improve security and to police in popular tourist areas.

( With inputs from ANI )

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