Tourism ministry inks pact with IRCTC to boost hospitality, tourism industry

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 statement said.The National Integrated Database of Hospitality Industry NIDHI is the ministrys portal to register accommodation units in the country.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 Ministry of Tourism has signed an agreement with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) as part of its ongoing efforts to strengthen the hospitality and tourism industry after the coronavirus pandemic left it in heavy losses.

The objective of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed on Wednesday, 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 Online Travel Aggregator (OTA) platform, the ministry said in a statement.

The Ministry of Tourism has already signed similar MoUs with EasyMyTrip, Cleartrip, Yatra.com, MakeMyTrip and Goibibo.

''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 statement said.

The National Integrated Database of Hospitality Industry (NIDHI) is the ministry's portal to register accommodation units in the country.

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 according to the agreement between the Ministry of Tourism and the 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 cooperation in the Indian hospitality and tourism sector for overall benefit in the identified areas through the MoU, the statement read.

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