After months of planning, the Maharashtra government has decided to schedule the nine-day International Tourism Festival in Mumbai next year. The international festival will be held between January 20 and 28, 2024.
It will be held every year from 2024 onwards along the lines of the Dubai International Festival. It has also been decided to form a foundation that will plan the festival, decide its scope, destination, formulate guidelines and take all policy decisions among other things.
This development came after the state cabinet approved the proposal on Wednesday, September 6. Later, on the same day, state Tourism Minister Girish Mahajan met industrialist Anand Mahindra at his office.
After the meeting, while speaking to media, Mahajan said that various measures are being taken for the development of tourism in the state including Mumbai. The International Tourism Festival will be organised as a part of this initiative and industrialist Anand Mahindra is the chairman of this foundation.
The government has also appointed actor Sachin Pilgaonkar, filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar and heads of hotel association, mall association, Credai and Indian association of tours operators as special invitees.
The foundation will have a 13-member body, which will also have the chief secretary as deputy chairperson.
The body will also have BMC commissioner, police commissioner, principal secretary tourism, Harsh Jain, CEO & co-founder of Dream11 & Dream Sports, Amitabh Chaudhry, managing director and chief executive officer, Axis Bank, Ronnie Screwwala, film producer, Neerja Birla, chairperson of Aditya Birla Education Trust (ABET), tourism director and others as directors.
In order to attract tourists from India and abroad, tourists will be informed about the history, culture, food, tourism, shopping, film industry, music, art, sports etc. of Mumbai city through this festival. This will help in the expansion of the tourism sector. The festival will be organized every year through this foundation.
During this, domestic and foreign tourists will be attracted in the state including Mumbai. This will lead to expansion of tourism as well as tourism based businesses, said Vishwas Minister Mahajan expressed.
Moreover, the foundation will make efforts to improve public participation in the festival, prepare a theme to promote tourism and trade, to get sponsorship from government, non-government and private organisations, ensure participation of local community, artists, NGOs, local authorities in the organisation, stated a senior government official from the tourism department.
The state has made a provision of INR 25 crores for marketing of the festival.
The foundation will further hold agreements with education institutions and cultural organisations to increase participation of locals.
Directorate of Tourism (DoT) along with the foundation aims to organise workshops, and seminars and make efforts to organise all the other festivals of the city -- Kala Ghoda, Bandra Fair, Banganga, Worli Mahotsav and Mumbai Marathon -- during the same period. It will introspect if any and submit its report to the government on regular basis, said the official.
The state tourism department is looking to make Maharashtra a compelling tourist destination with a focus on Mumbai, which will display the diversity and unique culture of the state through various means during the festival.
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