Delhi: The Ministry of Tourism has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) as part of its ongoing efforts to strengthen the Hospitality & Tourism Industry after the coronavirus pandemic left it in heavy losses. Ministry of Tourism has already signed similar MoUs with Easy My Trip, Cleartrip, Yatra.com, Make My Trip and Goibibo.
The primary objective of this MOU is to provide an extensive visibility to accommodation units, which have self-certified themselves on SAATHI (System for Assessment, Awareness & Training for the Hospitality Industry) on the OTA platform. The MoU also outlines both parties to encourage Units to register on NIDHI and thereby on SAATHI and encourage local tourism Industry with appropriate safeguards for curbing spread of COVID-19. The idea is also to gather more information on accommodation units in order to gain actionable insights & designing evidence based & targeted policy measures and to promote safe, honourable and sustainable tourism.
The MOU was signed by Deputy Director General (Hotels & Restaurants), Ministry of Tourism and JGM, Tourism, IRCTC in the presence of Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. The event was organized as per the agreement between Ministry of Tourism and Quality Council of India (QCI) for implementing measures for strengthening the Indian Hospitality & Tourism Industry.
The Ministry of Tourism and IRCTC shall endeavour to take necessary steps to encourage and promote strategic and technical co-operation in the Indian hospitality & tourism sector for overall benefit in the identified areas through the MOU.