Cabinet clears tourism MoU with Colombia

NEW DELHI: With Colombia fast emerging as a tourist destination for Indians, an agreement to strengthen the tourism sector was approved today.

The Union Cabinet cleared a memorandum of understanding with the South American nation for strengthening cooperation in the field of tourism.

The MoU will help expand bilateral cooperation in the tourism sector and encourage cooperation between tourism stakeholders, including hotels and tour operators, an official statement said after the Cabinet meeting.

"Colombia is an emerging tourism source market for India. The Ministry of Tourism organised a road show in Bogota (Colombian capital) in October, 2014, which elicited good response from travel trade of both countries.

"An MoU in the field of tourism cooperation would be one institutional mechanism to further bilateral relations between the two countries," the statement said, adding that the outbound tourist traffic from India during 2013 was 16.63 million.

"Considering the mutual benefits, signing of an MoU in the field of tourism would enable both countries to enter into a constructive dialogue for development and promotion of tourism in each other's country for the economic development of the two nations," the statement said.