India lends ASEAN a helping hand in hospitality, tourism training

India is offering her extensive network of hospitality and tourism training to South-east Asian nations, in an effort to help the region’s tourism workers brush up their skills.

At an ASEAN NTO meeting on Tuesday, D Venkatesan, deputy director general of India’s Ministry of Tourism, said: “India has offered to carry out human resource development training for ASEAN, where the countries send people to us to use our extensive network of established hotel management and tourism schools, covering many sectors, as well as our wealth of experience.”

Exploring opportunities for collaboration in tourism training

He cited the Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering, the Indian Institute of Tourism and Management Training, and the Indian Himalayan Centre for Adventure and Ecotourism as examples.

Added Venkatesan: “There is a lot of scope to collaborate.”

India is currently hammering out the final plans with Laos, which will be the first country from the ASEAN group to send staff to study. It is hoped this will take place this year, with other countries following suit.

Venkatesan told TTG Asia: “The finer details need to be worked out, such as how many people from each country and which category of people, and then we can get started.”

India is also pushing hard to establish direct flights with South-east Asian countries. He shared that Vietnam has submitted a proposal for a flight connecting Ho Chi Minh City with Delhi, with hopes it will launch this year.

Venkatesan added: “South-east Asia is a big market for India for Buddhist pilgrimages so more flights connecting us to Buddhist countries would be very welcome.”

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