Sunday, September 27, 2015

World Tourism Day celebrations special signification for Haryana

CHANDIGARH, SEPT 27
The World Tourism Day celebrations across Haryana today held special significance for the Haryana Tourism Department, which has added another feather in its cap with the inclusion of its ‘e-tourism’ project amongst the top eight such projects in the country this year.
Giving information here today, Principal Secretary Tourism, Dr. Sumita Misra, said that in recognition of its innovative efforts to facilitate tourists in the State by offering Information Technology-based solutions, the Skoch Order of Merit Award-2015 was conferred upon the Haryana Tourism Department at the recently-concluded 41st Skoch Summit held at New Delhi. This award was given in the category of innovative use of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) by state government Public Sector Undertakings, cooperatives, federations and societies.
She added that a jury of eminent experts rated the Department’s e-tourism project as one of the top eight projects in India for the year 2015 after scanning a large number of nominations and more than 300 presentations.
The e-tourism project entails the development of the Department’s mobile-responsive website www.haryanatourism.gov.in as per the W3C Guidelines. It offers integrated solutions to customers, corporate office and registered travel agents to book rooms at any of the 42 tourist resorts of Haryana Tourism across the State online. This system was launched in January, 2014. As a part of this project, e-ticketing for Surajkund International Crafts Mela was also integrated with the payment gateway and mobile app of the Mela, making it convenient for visitors to book their Mela ticket in advance at the click of a mouse button.
An effective Content Management System has also been established by Haryana Tourism through its portal for publication of news items, tenders, events and fairs and festivals, apart from grievances redressal system and feedback of tourists, and linking it with social sites to ensure lucid and transparent flow of information. User registration for newsletters, opinion poll, May I Help You and Smart Distance Calculator are among other novel features being offered on the Haryana Tourism portal.
Dr. Misra said that it was an honour to be lauded for technological accomplishments by Skoch, which recognised the top performing government organisations for imbibing best practices and models of governance for excellent and efficient implementation of programmes and services delivery.
She added that Haryana Tourism had made strenuous efforts to reach out to people with its interactive and mobile-responsive website that showcased the tourism potential in Haryana to the world and successfully offered online booking of rooms at all its Tourist Complexes.
Moving with times and in consonance with the changing technology, Haryana Tourism took an innovative leap by extending a facility to customers to make online booking of rooms for the Haryana Tourism Tourist Complexes using credit cards, she added. It spells convenience for customers to book the room as per availability in a transparent and easy manner. An SMS is sent to the customer regarding confirmation of the booking. The booking can also be cancelled online and the refund goes in the customer’s account automatically. Real time details of rooms with photos are also available in the booking platform so that the customer sees the exact room that one is booking. Many other state tourism departments are also replicating this online model. This facility has been developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC), Haryana, and is being maintained by them too.
Haryana Tourism, a trailblazer in highway tourism, operates 42 tourist complexes equipped with 838 air-conditioned rooms, 42 multi-cuisine restaurants, 53 convention centres, conference halls, banquets and porta cabins. It also organises the much-acclaimed Surajkund International Crafts Mela every year from February 1 to 15 at Faridabad.
 

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