The National Tourism awards held on Saturday, July 30, 2016, at the Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. The awards are organized to appreciate several creative initiatives to lure the national and international tourists on the state level. The states which were able to grab most of the attention were Madhya Pradesh and Kerala. The awards were given for the 2014-15 year and once again, Madhya Pradesh won the best state awards. The second and third places were clinched by Gujarat and Karnataka respectively. Other than MP, it was Kerala who grabbed a total of four awards under various categories. The Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan had graced the award function as a Chief Guest and gave the awards. So in total, this year the big winners were MP tourism and Kerala tourism in particular.
Madhya Pradesh has won the first prize in the category of Best State/Union Territory for the Comprehensive Development of Tourism for being able to provide a complete and varied travel experience to its tourists. The parameters of selecting the best states are stated by the Ministry of Tourism as, “With an emphasis on better infrastructure especially in the field of power and roads, destinations in MP have become more accessible and tourist-friendly spots. The state is well aware of the employment generation potential of the tourism sector and thus pays special attention to such training programs. Further, the aggressive and innovative branding campaigns make Madhya Pradesh the desire of every travel lover across the globe.”
From the past few years, MP Tourism has been highlighting the various tourist destination of MP and presenting it on the world’s platform in a way that it has become the dream destination of every travel lover, the aggressive campaigning has also played a major role in this. There were other categories also like the Best Heritage Walk Award and India City Walks; MP has won awards in both the categories. Along with this, the Amarkantak Monuments in MP won the Best Maintained and Disabled Friendly Monument.
The latest MP Tourism Advertisement is presented below, have a look:
The Art Ichol in Madhya Pradesh, which is a perfect destination for innovative and creative individuals to create and share their work of art in a picturesque environment, also won the award for the Best Innovative or Unique Tourism Project. Take a glimpse of the project in the following video:
After MP Tourism, there was a boom for the Kerala Tourism as it won a total of six awards national awards at the function, especially in the marketing category for states. Other than this, it won two more awards, out of which one was for its Responsible Tourism (RT) initiative in Wayanad.
Three out of the six awards was won in the Tourism Promotion and Publishing category including the most innovative use of Social Media or Mobile App for the campaign. Under the Wayanad Initiative, the state has transformed a hilly district’s economy with the help of intensive participation of people.
Overwhelmed with the response and so many awards, the Kerala Tourism Minister said that, “The awards are a heartening and robust reaffirmation of our Responsible Tourism initiative, which has emerged as a trailblazing tourism product for the entire country. We also received three national awards for our brilliant marketing initiatives which are designed to woo travelers from both inside the country and abroad.”
Also, Kerala’s book, “Kerala and the Spice Routes”, designed by Stark, was selected as the best in the category of Excellence in Publishing in the English Language.
“The Great Backwaters” which is the Kerala’s brochure in The German language has details regarding the unique, standalone and once in a lifetime experience of the state backwaters for the international travelers, in the German Language was the best in Foreign Language segment.
It would be interesting to know that, Yes Bank also managed to get an award for being the Most Responsible Tourism Project/Initiative category for its Edge of India initiative to promote tourism in the whole country so that the local communities can ensure their livelihood. On receiving the award, Rana Kapoor, Managing Director & CEO, Yes Bank said, “Yes Bank is honored to be the first Bank to receive the prestigious National Tourism Award from the Government of India, for its unique ‘Edge of India’ initiative which is focused on developing cooperative tourism models to ensure livelihood security of local communities. This significant national recognition further inspires us to continue working closely with the Government, industry, local communities and all stakeholders in the Tourism value chain to create an enabling policy environment to fully unlock India’s Global Potential in Tourism – an engine of economic growth and job creation.”
There were other prominent awards which were distributed to the following winners for the 2014-15 year:
Best Tourist Friendly Railway Station: Sawai Madhopur Railway Station, Rajasthan
Best Airport: Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai
Best Heritage City: Warangal, Telangana
Best Hotel (Five Star Category): Taj Exotica, Salcette, Goa
Best Heritage Hotel (Grand Category): Fateh Prakash Palace, Udaipur
