Mumbai,Wine Tourism, Bollywood Tourism & Other Emerging Segments To Be Promoted With Traditional Segments In A Fresh Initiative

White Paper On Tourism To Be Produced

To unlock the massive tourism potential that exists in Maharashtra and to commemorate the states 50th year, Maharashtra Economic Development Council (MEDC), Government of Maharashtra and Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) in association with Multinet Worldwide will celebrate 2010 as Visit Golden Maharashtra Year.

The yearlong celebrations will be launched on April 20, 2010 with a two day conference cum exhibition at the Y B Chavan Centre, Mumbai. Shri Ashok Chavan, Chief Minister of Maharashtra will inaugurate the conference. Dr. Vijay Kumar Gavit, Minister for Tourism, Medical Education & Horticulture will be the Chief Guest. The conference will be participated and addressed by various Government officials and industry captains including Shri Sujit Banerjee, Tourism Secretary, Government of India, Shri Anand Kulkarni, Principal Tourism Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, Ms. Sujata Thakur, Regional Director, Incredible India, Shri Ashwini Kakkar, Capt Krishnan Nair and others (please find attached the full speaker list and conference flow for more details).

Maharashtra is a land abundant in natural glory. Besides scenic beaches on the konkan coast, the towering Sahyadri ranges, wildlife reserves at Tadoba and Pench, the state also offers potential for harnessing unexplored segments like adventure tourism, eco-tourism, wine tourism and bollywood tourism, says Vithal Kamat, President, MEDC.

Visit Golden Maharashtra will hard promote the established and emerging segments in a sparkling new initiative. The concerns, opinions and suggestions of the travel industry and other interested parties will be discussed at the 2-day business conference. Key issues like investment opportunities and taxation issues in Maharashtra will be considered and a white paper will be produced to chart the course of tourism in Maharashtra, adds Kamat.

The two day business conference will comprise of five sessions. Day one will begin with inauguration and the plenary session. The second day will begin with the first session of the conference. Titled Empowering Maharashtra Tourism, the session will be an interactive round table session that will have decision makers, CEOs of Tourism, Aviation, MICE and Hospitality sector within Maharashtra discuss the roadmap to pave the way ahead.

Post lunch, two parallel sessions will try to understand the key segments of established and emerging tourism. This session will delve into niche areas within the segments and explore what will work best for Maharashtra. While established segments will delve into Pilgrimage, Heritage, and Medical sectors, the emerging segment will delve into areas such as Adventure, Rural/Agro, Eco, Wine, and MICE.

The conference will end with final segment titled My Wish List - An Open House Forum & Valedictory Session. This session will have the Minister of Maharashtra Tourism, Secretary of Tourism Govt. of Maharashtra and MD of MTDC taking questions and suggestions from Decision makers from the tourism, Aviation, MICE and Hospitality industry. The industry will present their wish list and suggest how these wishes can be effectively implemented. The end results will be documented in the form of a white paper to be presented to the Maharashtra Government with a deadline for Results

Post the business conference, various initiatives that have been lined up, will be held across the various parts of the State of Maharashtra. Visit Golden Maharashtra is one of the most ambitious tourism initiatives of the state and will herald this golden state to a golden era, concludes Kamat. Co-incidentally, 2010 marks the golden jubilee of Maharashtra.

Notes to Editor

For further details or query, contact:

Harshala Nayak / Snehal Amin

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