PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized “Conference on Spiritual Tourism for Sustainable Development: India – The Land of Gods” on 29th October, 2015 at PHD House, New Delhi.
The forum was an endeavour towards establishing the foundation to facilitate the promotion of untapped ancient spiritual tourism destinations across Indian sub continent and projecting the nation as a preferred destination for spiritual tourism including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and Sufism etc. This meet was an effort towards promoting and propagating Spiritual Tourism potentials in India and to identify and develop dedicated religious tourism circuits.
The conference was attended by Tours and Travel experts / operators, Spiritual Leaders, Monks, State Tourism Boards, Historians and Academicians, Recreational Facilities Provider and many more relevant stakeholders.
India has always been a delight for tourists, especially those interested in history, culture and religion. It must be admitted that although spirituality is the soul of India.
India has a positive Kaleidoscope of religions. There is probably more diversity of religions in India than any where on the earth. Apart from having representations from almost all the religions of the world, India was also the birthplace of two greatest religions of the world, namely, Hinduism and Buddhism. It was also the home to one of the oldest religions of the world, Zoroastrianism, and also to an ancient religion unique to India, Jainism.
Some of the most visited sacred places of India includes Varanasi, Bodh Gaya, Ajmer, Golden Temple, Haji ali Dargah, Rishikesh, Tirupati and other prominent pilgrim sites.
On the most of these places, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India has launched two new plan schemes – National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) and Swadesh Darshan– and both the schemes are to be implemented in mission mode. The prime motive of launching these two schemes is to develop world-class infrastructure in the respective destinations/circuits is one of the mission objectives of the schemes.
Under PRASAD, initially, 12 cities namely Amritsar, Ajmer, Amaravati, Dwaraka, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Kedarnath, Kamakhya, Mathura, Puri, Varanasi and Vellankani have been identified for the development. Apart from the above initiatives, Ministry of Tourism has also identified various religious tourism circuits in order to promote pilgrim sites across the country, few of which are :
In order to promote the significance of Spiritual Tourism in India, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry took the initiative and organized Conference on Spiritual Tourism for Sustainable Development – “India : The Land of Gods ”
Inaugural Session witnessed His Holiness Shri Shri 1008 Sjoham Babaji, Founder Chairman, Sjoham Babaji Missions, His Eminence Drukpa Thuksey Rinpoche, Spiritual Master – Drukpa Lineage, PADMAVIBHUSHAN Dr. Sonal Mansingh, Founder President – Centre for Indian Classical Dances , Mr. Radim Holecek, Member of Parliament, CZECH REPUBLIC, Dr. Subhash Goyal, President, IATO, Dr. Mahesh Gupta, Senior Vice President, PHD Chamber, Mr. Gopal Jiwarajka, Vice President, PHD Chamber, Mr. Vijay Mehta, Chairman, Tourism Committee, PHD Chamber and Mr. Yogesh Srivastav, Director, PHD Chamber also addressed the participants in the inaugural session.
Technical Session witnessed speakers from Government and Industry: Mr. P.P. Shrivastav, IAS (Retd), Former Member, North Eastern Council & Former Home Secretary, Govt. of India, H.E. Mr. Jorge Cardenas Robles, Ambassador, Embassy of Bolivia, H.E Mr. Petko Doykov, Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria, Mr. Radu Octavian Dobre, Charge D’Affairs, Embassy of Romania, Dr. Arvind Alok, Chairman, Buddhist Monuments Development Council, Mr. Neeraj Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer, French Touch Travel, Mr. GG Saxena, Former Managing Director, Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation Ltd.
Mr. Saurabh Sanyal, Secretary General, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry delivered formal vote of thanks.
Mr. Yogesh Srivastav, Director, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry delivered formal concluding remarks.
The Conference was attended by more than 150 delegates from the industry and government circle.
The Conference was covered in all the leading national dailies.