Tourism Minister meets President of Catalonia Province of Spain
Union Tourism Minister Shri K Chiranjeevi called on Mr. Artur Mas, President of Catalonia province of Spain in Barcelona, Spain today.

Both the leaders acknowledged that tourism sector has immense potential for cooperation and discussed the possibility of enhancing inter-alia trade, scientific, tourism, civil aviation and people to people contacts. When Mr. Artur Mas expressed his intention to lead a big business delegation from Catalonia to India this year, the Tourism Minister invited him to India.

As part of engaging the Indian market, Catalonia Tourist Board plans to organize familiarization trips for the media and trade in May this year. The Regional Tourism Board, along with Spanish Tourism Board will also organise workshops on tourism in India in September, 2013. A total of 15,000 Indian tourists visited Catalonia in 2011, making India the second largest market after Singapore in the South East Asia region.

Catalonia is also targeting the Indian tourism market with various programmes this year. Catalonia is the hub of Spanish Tourism. Catalonia alone receives about 23 million tourists every year, and this region’s contribution is as much as 20% of the GDP of Spain.

According to Mr. David Miro, Regional Director (Asia-Pacific) Catalonia Tourist Board, the Board will launch its online training and certification programme for the Indian travel and tourism agents, starting from February this year. The online training and certification programme, which will run for a year, will have five modules comprising regional offerings - ´destination Barcelona´, places of interest, accommodation, and diverse travel products, including the culture and heritage of the region. The objective is to help Spanish Tourism Board promote Catalan region in the Indian market.