Union Minister Chiranjeevi inaugurates new IITTM campus at Noida

The Union Tourism Minister K Chiranjeevi inaugurated the new campus of Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM) at Noida.

Speaking on the occasion the Minister said India has a long lived tradition of Athiti devo bhava that has been shadowed by social tensions of modern lives. He said,

"We cannot promote tourism if our visitors do not trust hosts and hosts do not welcome visitors. The host community must provide the landscape for tourism. To revive the tradition of Athithi Devo Bhava; tourism students can act as the brand ambassadors and also help the host community in realizing the importance of this industry".

Referring to many gaps in our tourism supply chain the Minister expressed the confidence that our constant and active efforts shall bridge these gaps and we shall emerge as one of the leading tourism destinations of the world. He said in order to create a pro tourist environment in our country we have given a new lift to Incredible India campaign by targeting both domestic and international tourism. Shri Chiranjeevi said ,"Safety of tourists is our top most priority and there shall be zero tolerance for crime against tourists".

The Tourism Minister said as you all know that tourism has been an age old activity and it is of no surprise that it has become one of the most important social and economic activity of today's world.

We can gauge the importance of tourism by the fact that tourism's contribution to employment is estimated to be 6 - 7 % of the overall number of jobs worldwide. He said, "In India, the travel and tourism sector is estimated to create 78 jobs per million rupees of investment compared to 45 jobs in the manufacturing sector for similar investment.

The millennium development goal of poverty alleviation can be achieved by the job opportunities available in the travel and tourism industry".

The new campus of IITTM is spread over 10 acres of land in Sector 62 of Noida. The campus has been constructed at a cost of Rs. 27.70 crore.

Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM) is an autonomous organization of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and is one of the premier institutes in South Asia offering education, training, research and consultancy in sustainable management of tourism, travel and other allied sectors.

IITTM, Delhi offers two year PGDM programme in tourism & leisure. It has pan India presence with its centers at Gwalior, Nellore, Delhi, Goa and Bhubaneswar. IITTM Delhi was started in 2007 from a temporary campus in IHM Pusa. It has contributed in various capacity building programmes of the Government and has been instrumental in training of more than 5000 students under Earn while you learn, Capacity Building for Service Providers, Hunar Se Rozgar etc. schemes.

IITTM, Delhi is committed to developing quality human resources for tourism, allied services and has been serving as a focal point for higher tourism education and has a unique distinction of 100% placement of its eligible students since inception.

To promote tourism education at all levels IITTM, Delhi has collaborated with CBSE for promotion of tourism education at secondary school level. The centre has also been actively involved in the designing of the tourism curriculum for the National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework.

Recently IITTM, Delhi has won the prestigious "National India Education Excellence Award " for the "Best Institute in Tours and Travel Education" in the country for 2013, awarded by Time Research.