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India’s Minister for Culture & Tourism opens first China office in Beijing
The Indian Minister for Culture & Tourism, Madame Ambika Soni opened the nations first national tourism office in Beijing last night at a star studded gala dinner at the Beijing hotel. This follows the Chinese establishment of a similar office in New Delhi last August.
The new office, sited on the 29th floor of the East Tower of Beijing’s prestigious Twin Towers – the same building as Dezan Shira & Associates regional office – is headed up by Mr. S.R. Meena and is the 14th overseas office of the Indian Tourism Department.
The event, hosted by the famous Bollywood actor Kabir Bedi (see a clip of him singing the famous Sandokan movie title song on youtube here, also featured welcome speeches by Mme. Soni, the Chairman of the China National Tourism Adminsitration Shao Qiwei, and the Indian Ambassador to China, Mme. Nirupama Rao; also featured a cast of over fifty dancers especially flown in for the event, performing a specially choreographed new piece of Indian dancing including six regional troupes and a drum quartet, arranged by the internationally recognised Indian classical dancer Leela Samson. A course of five dishes, prepared by ten master Indian chefs, again flown in especially for the event, fed an audience of whos who in Beijing of over 700 guests.
Indian tourism certainly needs a push in China. While close to half a million Indians visited China last year, just 68,000 Chinese made the return journey. The opening of the Beijing Tourism office is expected to help close that gap.
The signs are things will improve. There are now 27 daily weekly flights between India and China, and these are already flying at close to capacity. More flights are planned during the course of 2008/9 and are expected to triple this current limit. The Indian promotion also extends to Shanghai next week, with events being held at the Shanghai Rennaisance Hotel – a week long Indian food promotion – and an “Incredible India” evening at the Shanghai Concert Hall on 9th April.
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April 8th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
The event was truly a splendid one. I was just proud to tell people that I flew back from Mumbai the night before. It was my second trip, with Chris, to India since last summer.
India has always been a very fascinating country to me. Its well known long history, rich diversity of culture and religions, numerous world’s heritage sites, wide variety of habitat and wildlife, colorful local arts……. and admiring one of the world’s greatest architectural masterpiece – the Taj Mahal at sunset and at dawn made my experience very special.