New Delhi, Dec 10: Culture and Tourism Minister Prahlad Patel on Thursday said efforts are being made to ensure that India has guides who are prolific in the UN languages so that they can interact with foreign tourists on a one-to-one basis.
There are six official languages of the United Nations.
These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
“We have decided that wherever more than one lakh foreign tourists visit, if they are not comfortable in Hindi and English, we will have signages in their language. Sometimes when a big group would come, we wouldn’t have enough guides speaking those languages… Now, the Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel management on the directions of the PM is trying to ensure that we have guides in the UN languages,” Patel said while virtually inaugurating the Association of Buddhist Tour Operators International Convention.
The minister also shared the initiative of having signages in international languages at important Buddhist sites in the country, including signages in Chinese language that have been put up at five Buddhist sites/monuments in Uttar Pradesh.
Similarly, since Sanchi receives a large number of tourists from Sri Lanka, signages in Sinhalese language have been put up at the monuments there.
He also said that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was working on relisting ancient monuments and the number of such sites could increase from the present 3,691 to around 8,000 to 10,000.
The minister said the government has been making special efforts to promote Buddhist tourism in the country.
Patel said the ministry has sanctioned more than Rs 350 cr for the development of Buddhist sites under the Swadesh Darshan scheme and over Rs 900 crore has been sanctioned under the PRASHAD scheme. (PTI)
