India, Japan sign MoU for tourism promotion

India and Japan have entered into a memorandum of understanding for strengthening cooperation in the field of tourism.

The agreement, signed between India's ministry of tourism and the Japan Tourism Agency, comes ahead of the visit of Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's official visit to India from 25 to 27 January for the annual summit between India and Japan.

Under the agreement, the two countries would facilitate travel and tourist visits and further strengthen the tourism partnership between the two countries.

Parvez Dewan, secretary, ministry of tourism, government of India, said religious tourism in the form of Buddhist heritage sites is a great attraction for Japanese tourists to India.

Japanese tourists have been availing visa-on-arrival in a major way and the highest number of visas on arrival were issued to the tourists from Japan during 2013, he said.

Japan is an important source market for Indian tourism. During 2013, India received 2.20 lakh tourists from Japan.

The MoU between India and Japan is intended to serve as the key instrument for greater action oriented cooperation and further strengthening the close tourism partnership between the two countries, he said.

The MoU will help expand bilateral cooperation in the tourism sector, exchange information and data related to tourism, encourage cooperation between tour operators and tourism stakeholders, including hotel owners.

It provides for establishing exchange programmes for cooperation in human resource development, exchange visits of tour operators, media and opinion makers for promotion of two way tourism as also exchange experience in the areas of promotion, marketing, destination development and management.

The two sides will also participate in travel fairs and exhibitions in each other's country and help promote safe, honourable and sustainable tourism.