On World Tourism Day, PM Modi says hospitals and hospitality work in tandem
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said places with more vaccination and better healthcare infrastructure will attract more tourists, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, as he stressed that the hospital and hospitality sectors work in tandem.
“It is also a coincidence that today’s program is being organised on World Tourism Day. Some may wonder what does health care program have to do with tourism?,” PM Modi asked while addressing the launch event of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. “But health has a very strong relationship with tourism. Because when our health infrastructure is integrated and strengthened, it also affects the tourism sector in a positive way,” he pointed out.
He asked whether a tourist will want to visit a place that doesn’t have good health infrastructure. “And after corona, it has become all the more important. Tourists will feel safe in places that have vaccinated the most number of people. And you must have noticed that in places like Himachal, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Goa and Andaman and Nicobar—the tourist destination states—there has been a stress on the pace of vaccination so that tourists have a sense of trust,” he added.
World Tourism Day is observed to stress the potential of tourism and raise awareness of its importance in affecting the international community’s social, cultural, political and economic values. This year the theme of World Tourism Day is ‘Tourism for Inclusive Growth’ and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has urged businesses, tourists, UN agencies, member states and non-members to “celebrate tourism’s unique ability to ensure that nobody is left behind as the world begins to open up again and look to the future”.
The Prime Minister also expressed gratitude to all doctors, nurses, the medical staff of the nation, for their efforts in the vaccination drive or treatment of Covid-19 patients. He said it is very important that the medical services in villages should be improved in order to improve healthcare services across the country.
“Today the network related to primary health care is being strengthened in the village and near the house. So far 80,000 such centres have been made operational. Unprecedented reforms are also taking place in medical education to transform India’s health sector. Today more doctors and paramedical manpower are being prepared in the country than before in 7-8 years,” he said.
PM Modi noted that the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission will now connect the digital health solutions of hospitals across the country and play a big role in eliminating problems in the medical treatment of the poor and middle class. PM Modi said that the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission has the potential to bring a revolutionary change to the country’s health facilities.
Under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, a digital health ID will be provided to people that will contain their health records. The Prime Minister announced the pilot project of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission during his Independence Day speech on August 15, 2020. Currently, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is being implemented in a pilot phase in six union territories.