India, France sign MoU for tourism promotion

India and France today signed an MoU for cooperation in the area of tourism. Both the countries would promote each other's destinations, human resource development in tourism and will contribute to the development of new products, particularly through the promotion of natural and cultural heritage.

The MoU says both the countries will endeavour to promote tourism cooperation in the area of tourism administrations and management by exchanging expertise, human resource development and product development. Both the countries will also help each other in marketing tourism and will share market research for this purpose. They will also cooperate in the area of trade and tourism investment, travel related services as well as training programme between the respective private sectors of both the countries.

France is one of the top tourists generating markets for India. During 2005, there was a growth of about 35 per cent in arrival from France. India has a tourism promotion office in Paris to look after tourism promotion activities in France. It organizes various promotional events to project different aspects of Indian destinations.