Now movies to promote Incredible India abroad

New Delhi: Bollywood movies have for long popularised foreign destinations in India and now the same tool will be used to promote Indian destinations among foreign travellers and filmmakers.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Ministry of Tourism Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance the reach of Incredible India through cinema with the aim of increasing inbound flow of tourists by five million over the next four years. The MoU was signed in the presence of Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni and Minister for Tourism Subodh Kant Sahai. The MoU will provide an impetus to frame policies and guidelines for facilitating shooting of international films in India and promote the country as a destination for filming movies. "Movies have played a big role in making destinations known… We will work with states for single-window permission so that movie makers find it easy to get permissions for shooting," Sahai said. Tourism ministry official said that the MoU is expected to increase foreign tourists footfall in the country from 0.6 percent to one percent by the end of 12th Five Year plan and that India can register 11.37 million foreign tourist arrivals by 2016 compared to 6.29 million in 2011. IANS