Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday said that the State Government was making all possible efforts to exploit the tourism potential of the State to its full.
“Appropriate infrastructure was being developed to attract more domestic and foreign tourists besides increasing the hotel occupancy and providing them, with all best possible facilities,” he said.
The Chief Minister, who also holds tourism portfolio, was presiding over the board of directors meeting of Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC), here.
He said that the corporation was doing a commendable job in promoting tourism industry and ensuring that the State remains a premier tourist destination in the country as well as the world.
Virbhadra Singh said the corporation had earned profit during the current financial year, adding that the income of the corporation was Rs75 crore against the expenditure of Rs72 crore, thereby registering gross profit of Rs3 crore.
The profit target for the year 2013-14, had been fixed at Rs6 crore which was almost double of this years’ profit. He said that the initiatives taken by the corporation were laudable to increase its earnings and thereby contribute towards the State’s economy.
The test run for providing Wi-Fi facilities in HPTDC Volvo buses on Delhi-Manali and Delhi-Shimla routes was welcomed as it would provide internet facilities to the commuters on their mobiles, I-pods and laptops, said the Chief Minister.
Principal secretary, HPTDC, VC Pharka said that to boost tourism in the State the corporation had signed MoUs with Delhi and Goa Tourism in order to book each others’ properties and further tie-up was being finalised with other States like Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan, so that more people from these States visit such places and vice-versa.
Pharka said that HPTDC had collected data base of more than 80,000 mobile users and e-mail IDs of tourists and travel agents for bulk SMS and e-mail campaigns for promotion of tourism.
The corporation was also exploring possibilities of social media marketing through twitter and face book.
He said that the search engine optimisation had been started by subscribing to Google marketing web-tools for ensuring better presence of HPTDC, website on Google search Engine.
Managing director-cum-director, HPTDC, Subhasish Panda said that the corporation had introduced many new packages for tourists visiting the State.
The packages would benefit and promote religious, adventure and heritage tourism. Special honeymoon packages, toy train packages would go a long way in attracting more tourists and result in their longer stay in the State.