Today is World Tourism Day. It is being celebrated since 1980 on 27th September, the day in which the Statutes of the World Tourism Organization, UNWTO entered into force. This year India is hosting the official celebrations of World Tourism Day with the theme ‘Tourism and Jobs: a better future for all’.

On the occasion, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today conferred the National tourism awards in various categories at a function in New Delhi. Andhra Pradesh has bagged the Best State award for overall growth in tourism category while Goa and Madhya Prdesh were joint winners in Adventure Tourism category.  Uttarakhand was awarded best film promotion friendly state and Telangana for the  best state in innovative use of IT category.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Naidu urged all stake holders of the tourism industry to be mindful of their ecological foot print and called for more responsible and sustainable tourism practices. He expressed concern over the problem of pollution and asked service providers to make sustainability and conservation an integral part of their business plans. The Vice President urged them to adopt a more judicious approach to consumption of resources so that future generations also have the opportunity to avail of all the benefits of tourism.