NEW DELHI: The tourism ministry has commenced the process of setting up a ‘Strategic Programme Management Unit’ (SPMU) for the implementation of the National Digital Tourism Mission (NDTM).
The division will identify and prioritise work, and monitor budgetary estimations of the Mission. The Unit will initially work directly under the ministry until the NDTM institutional set-up is ready. The ministry notified the formation of the Mission in April last year.
The Unit, an agency to be selected through a formal tendering process, will identify and help in prioritising the areas of implementation, defining the roadmap, milestones, and implementation strategy of NDTM in consultation with the ministry.
The SPMU will also prepare detailed project reports (DPRs) including a prioritisation framework, functional phasing of the project components, project timelines and deliverables, project roll-out and implementation plan.
NDTM was envisaged after a detailed study of the tourist life cycle, tourism destination or area lifecycle, related regulatory framework and existing IT initiative of the ministry and its stakeholders.
According to the ministry, presently, the tourism systems belonging to Central and state governments, the public sector and the private sector function in silos and the tourism ecosystem is unable to harvest the combinatorial benefits of information exchange.
Data systems currently don’t interact with each other using a common language, thus curtailing data analytics and resultant policymaking. This, in turn, makes the technology systems and individuals vulnerable and often results in inconsistent handling of data.
The vision of NDTM is to bridge this existing information gap amongst different stakeholders of the tourism ecosystem through digital highways.
The implementation of NDTM will have multifold benefits to various entities of the tourism ecosystem, said officials. Tourists will have access to trusted aggregated information regarding services, service providers and personalised tours. They will also be able to identify suitable destinations, know arrangements for Visas, book tickets and information about destinations.
For stakeholders such as service providers and startups, the NDTM will provide greater connectedness, real-time feedback and research data. The real-time feedback will allow them to identify their gaps and improve their services. With NDTM in place, the providers will have a new national-level platform for collaboration apart from their own websites and channels.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while reviewing the progress of the National Digital Health Mission, suggested a similar initiative be taken up for the tourism sector.