India closing several loss-making overseas tourism offices
India’s ministry of tourism plans to downsize the number of overseas tourism offices.
In a cost-cutting measure up to half of 14 tourism offices worldwide will be shut down.
Offices located in Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Sydney and Johannesburg along with two in North America are facing the chop.
The ministry sees the continuing digitisation of tourism marketing making bricks and mortar offices less essential.
"The plan is to reshape these 14 offices into eight regional hubs for greater efficiency. The offices in Toronto and Los Angeles are the first ones to be wound up," union tourism minister KJ Alphons recently told The Indian Express.
The tourism offices in New York ,Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo, Dubai, Frankfurt and London will continue operating while a new Moscow office is planned as a hub for Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian markets.
The move follows an Overseas Marketing Division survey of overseas tourism functions and found many of the offices were unprofitable.
The ministry also uncovered financial and administrative irregularities at some of the offices according to sources cited in the local media.
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