Ministry of Tourism conducted a two day national workshop on “sustainable tourism criteria for In­dia” in New Delhi on July 27 and 28.
The criteria were developed on the basis of existing “Global Sustainable Tour­ism Criteria” (GSTC). All the stakehold­ers in the tourism sector in the country have agreed to adopt the Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India. The agree­ment was evolved at a Workshop on Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India.
Since the GSTC had codes for only Hotel & Tour Operator sectors the stake­holders at the conference have decided to extend it to other sectors of Tourism industry and a steering committee has been constituted to evolve the Sustain­able Tourism criteria for India, which will then be formally adopted. For evolving sustainable tourism criteria and for devel­opment of various indicators subsequently it was suggested at the conference that India could consider global sustainable tourism criteria developed by Tourism Sustainability Council and other best practices around the world. For evolving appropriate criteria, which will suit Indian context, a Steering Committee has been constituted by Ministry of Tourism, which has representation of major stakeholders.

Mr. Sultan Ahmed, Minister of State for Tourism in his inaugural speech said that sustainable tourism criteria for India, once adopted, will make India as the leader in this field and should guide all future tourism activities.
He also said, Foreign Tourist Arrivals in India during the Month of June 2010 were 3.70 lakh as compared to foreign tourist arrivals of 3.42 lakh during the month of June 2009 and 3.42 lakh in June 2008. There has been a growth of 8.0% in June 2010 over June 2010 over June 2009 as compared to a growth of 0.2% registered in June 2009 over June 2008. He said, while the efforts to promote tourism have been enhanced, one must not ignore the impact of unorganized and uncontrolled growth of tourism on the environment and ecol­ogy of various destinations. It has been the endeavor in the Ministry of Tourism to formulate a policy that encourages sustain­able tourism while underlining creation of environmental, social, economic and climate responsiveness, the minister said.
This workshop was attended by Sec­retaries of States /Union Territories Tour­ism and Environment Departments and Stake Holders from Tourism Industry.