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Resolve to make a leading tourism State

Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation (MPSTDC) commemorated the first Tourism Day here on Thursday with the resolve to make Madhya Pradesh a frontline Tourism State.

Speaking at a special function organised at the Jehan Numa Palace Heritage Hotel here on Thursday afternoon, the MPSTDC Chairman, Dhruv Narain Singh said that Madhya Pradesh has more potential for tourism than many other States.

"While Rajasthan is marketing its sand dunes, we have rich forests and wildlife to attract tourists", he said adding Madhya Pradesh has vast potential for tourism as the State is richly endowed with forest wealth, vast heritage and a large number of archeological sites.

Mr. Singh said that MPSTDC has taken rapid strides during the last three year period but a lot was still needed to be done.

He particularly stressed the need for more media exposure when it came to promoting tourism.

On this occasion, the State Principal Secretary, Tourism and Culture, Abha Asthana read out Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan's special message.

In his message, the Chief Minister has said that tourism was bound to gain extra momentum once the Indore and Bhopal airports were upgraded as international airports.

Ms. Asthana said in her speech that the tourism sector was in the priority list of the State Government. The poor roads in the State were especially brought under the scanner and now almost all roads linking tourist destinations have been upgraded, she pointed out.

The Managing Director of MPSTDC, Ashwani Lohani said: "Madhya Pradesh has all the potential to be the frontline Tourism State but we have not been recognised in that position so far."

The strategy is to focus on human resource to achieve the goal of catapulting the State into the first position on the tourism front, he said adding that there also has to be tremendous focus on environment, services, development of infrastructure, promotional campaigns, extensive use of Information Technology and innovation.

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Resolve to make a leading tourism State

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