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Jan 2005
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Renuka Chowdhury's 'Atithi Devo Bhava' campaign begins

Dancers performing at the
Atithi Devo Bhava drive
launched by the Tourism
Ministry in New Delhi

New Delhi: Tourism Minister Renuka Chowdhury today launched a 'Athiti Devo Bhava' campaign aimed at providing the inbound tourist a sense of being welcomed in the country. The campaign will target the Indian masses as a whole, while focusing mainly on the stakeholders of the tourism industry. Speaking at the launch, Chowdhury said, "Atithi Devo Bhava' would be a nation-wide campaign aimed at sensitising people to India's rich cultural heritage, its preservation, cleanliness, hospitality and bringing out an attitudinal shift among the masses towards tourists". "Atithi Deva hava is the symbolic representation of India's age old hospitality and with this campaign, we are trying to re- instill in the stake holders a sense of pride and responsibility towards tourists, while positioning India's position as a popular tourist destination worldwide," she added.

According to a press release, the campaign will provide training and orientation to taxi drivers, guides, immigration officers, tourist police, restaurant owners and other persons directly interacting with the tourists. It will also educate the public at large. The campaign will based on seven points - Sensitisation, Screening, Induction, Training and Orientation, Certification and Feedback of key stakeholder of the Tourism Industry in India. The campaign will be rolled out in a phased manner over a period of three years. In the first phase Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan, Goa and Aurangabad would be covered. During the first six months 2600 persons will be trained and given certificates and logo of 'Atithi Devo Bhava' to display at their taxi, restaurants or installation. The performance will be reviewed and further training will be provided for update. The training programme will be conducted by experts at two levels. Level I will primarily train the taxi drivers, guides, porters etc in the form of nukkad training, road show and classroom programme. The Level II training will be a classroom program focussing on immigration officials, tourist police etc. After the successful completion of the training programme, a certificate will be issued to the participants.
- Jan 19, 2005

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