Panaji: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday invited G20 delegates to visit India during the 2024 general election to witness the “festival of democracy in the mother of democracy”.
In a video message for the delegates at the G20 Tourism Ministerial meeting in Goa, the Prime Minister said, “Next year, India will hold its next general election. For over a month, nearly a billion voters will be celebrating this festival, re-affirming their abiding faith in democratic values. With more than a million voting booths, there will be no shortage of places for you to witness this festival, in all its diversity. I invite you all to visit India for this most important of global festivals.”
Stressing that tourism has the potential to unite people and create a harmonious society, Modi said, “It is said that terrorism divides, but tourism unites…The motto of India’s G20 Presidency, ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ — ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’, can itself be a motto for global tourism.”
Underlining that ‘Atithi Devo Bhava (a guest is like God)’ is India’s approach to tourism, he said, “Our tourism is not just about sight-seeing. It is an immersive experience.”
PM Modi said that developing spiritual tourism is one of the main focus areas in India.
“After all, India attracts pilgrims of every major religion of the world. After the infrastructure upgrade, the eternal city of Varanasi, just one of the major spiritual centres, now attracts 70 million pilgrims — a ten-fold increase from earlier. We are also creating new tourist attractions, such as the Statue of Unity. As the tallest statue in the world, it attracted about 2.7 million people within a year after it was built,” he said.
“In the last nine years, we have placed special emphasis on developing the entire ecosystem of tourism in the country,” he added.
Agencies