About The Ministry

The Ministry of Tourism, is the nodal agency for the formulation of national policies and programs and for the co-ordination of activities of various Central Government Agencies, State Governments/UTs and the Private Sector for the development and promotion of tourism in the country. The Ministry is headed by the Union Minister for Tourism and Ministers of State.

The administrative head of the Ministry is the Secretary (Tourism). The office of the Director General of Tourism provides executive directions for the implementation of various policies and programs. Directorate General of Tourism has a field formation of 20 offices within the country and one sub-ordinate office/project i.e. Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering (IISM)/ Gulmarg Winter Sports Project. The field offices in India are responsible for providing information service to tourists and to monitor the progress of field projects. The activities of IISM/GWSP have now been revived and various Ski and other courses are being conducted in the J&K valley.

The Ministry of Tourism has a public sector undertaking, the India Tourism Development Corporation Limited and the following autonomous institutions:

Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM) and National Institute of Water Sports (NIWS)
National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology (NCHMCT) and the Institutes of Hotel Management.

Role and Functions of the Ministry of Tourism

The Ministry of Tourism functions as the nodal agency for the development of tourism in the country. It plays a crucial role in coordinating and supplementing the efforts of the State/Union Territory Governments, catalyzing private investment, strengthening promotional and marketing efforts and in providing trained manpower resources. The functions of the Ministry in this regard mainly consist of the following:

All Policy Matters, including:

Development Policies.
Incentives.
External Assistance.

Manpower Development.
Promotion & Marketing.
Investment Facilitation.

Planning & Co-ordination with other Ministries, Departments, State/UT Governments., Regulation:

Standards.
Guidelines

Infrastructure & Product Development.

Guidelines

Human Resource Development

Institutions.
Setting Standards and Guidelines.

Publicity & Marketing:

Policy.
Strategies.
Co-ordination.

Research, Analysis, Monitoring and Evaluation

International Co-operation and External Assistance

International Bodies.
Bilateral Agreements.
External Assistance.
Foreign Technical Collaboration

Legislation and Parliamentary Work, Establishment matters, Vigilance matters, Implementation of official language policy, Implementation of official language policy, Budget co-ordination and related matters, Plan-coordination and monitoring

The Functions of Attached Office viz. Directorate General of Tourism are as under:

Assistance in the formulation of policies by providing feedback from the field offices and Monitoring of Plan Projects and assisting in the Plan formulation

Coordinating the activities of field offices and their supervision, Regulation: