India to Promote Indian Ocean Rim and Coastal Tourism

 

Dr Mahesh Sharma, India’s Minister of Tourism, Culture & Civil Aviation stressed the importance of developing, deepening and strengthening relations with the IOR countries which have civilizational links with India.

 

According to the minister, India’s new initiative to deepen ties with IOR countries will definitely help to promote intra-regional trade and tourism among countries of the grouping. 

 

Noting that India has a great potential of promoting pilgrim and culture tourism, he says the  government is giving more stress on developing, deepening and strengthening relations with the IOR countries which have civilizational links with India.

 

The Prime Minister has given more importance to promote ties with our IOR neighbours, who will not only strengthen the security of our vast sea lanes in Indian Ocean but also secure our age-old cultural relations with them, Sharma said.

 

The minister added that India plans to develop a “coastal circuit” for tourism. India has a long coastline of 7,500km which possesses rich culture and heritage. If this can be harnessed along with beach tourism, culture and pilgrim tourism, all states particularly coastal states like Odisha will be benefited, he said.

 

As part of promoting the tourism ties, on Monday the delegates from several Indian Ocean Rim Countries have visited the Black Pagoda at Konark, Odisha. “The beauty and grandeur of the place is just spellbinding. The magnificent creativity and artistic carvings on stone made Konark as one of the wonders in the World,” said Professor Chotima Chaturawong, Faculty of Architecture, Silpakorn University, Thailand