The Ministry of Tourism’s decision to wind up all the Overseas India Tourism Offices by the end of this month and instead designate Tourism Officers at the missions abroad for the promotion of India’s tourism offerings has left several missions and offices worried about their budget and manpower constraints.

As per a report published in the indianexpress.com, most of India’s overseas tourism offices have been gradually closed down since 2018. Now, the last seven of them – London, Tokyo, Beijing, Dubai, Singapore, New York and Frankfurt – will also be shut down by March-end.

Last week, Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy stated in Parliament that six officers are posted in Overseas India Tourism Offices against the sanctioned posts of 31. He said the Ministry of External Affairs has designated Tourism Officers in all the important source markets to carry out overseas promotional activities in the tourism-generating markets.

For 20 of its major source markets — Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Oman, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Netherlands, the UK and the US — India has posted Tourism Officers in its missions more than a year ago, the report published in indianexpress.com highlighted.

India Tourism, Beijing, has suggested having more India-based staff to run the office properly. “It’s very difficult to run an office smoothly especially when there is a lack of manpower. Only one India-based officer is not justice with this office as China is a very big region, which is the biggest outbound market for the world,” it said in its response to the Indian Express.

As per the report printed in the indianexpress.com, the Indian Embassy in Rome said it “is in agreement with the recommendations made by the House panel and strongly recommended reopening of India tourism office either in Milan or Rome for promotion of India tourism in Italy”