DUBAI: A leading Arab travel industry showcase here has named India as the recipient of the New Frontiers Award 2014 for its efforts to rebuild infrastructure and its rural tourism economy after two natural disasters.
Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Tourism Devender Singh received the award from Mark Walsh, Portfolio Director, Reed Travel Exhibitions, at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM), a four day event here.
The award was given in recognition of India’s efforts to rebuild infrastructure and its rural tourism economy in the wake of the June 2013 floods and landslides in Uttarakhand and the devastation wreaked by tropical Cyclone Phailin in Odisha.
“The people of northern India were faced with widespread devastation last year in the aftermath of not one, but two life-changing natural disasters, with the Uttarakhand floods and Cyclone Phailin causing wholesale destruction in the space of just five months,” said Walsh.
“It took monumental effort and sheer determination on the part of regional and national government, as well as by people in the affected communities and beyond, to start the rebuilding process and get the local economy back on track, and this collaborative effort embodies the spirit of the New Frontiers Award,” Walsh said.
Accepting the award, Singh said, “Tremendous effort is being made at all levels in terms of rebuilding tourism infrastructure in the affected areas, from state government activity to financial support from the Government of India. It will be a long-term process and we have only just started to get back to normal, but we are optimistic for the future.”
The New Frontiers Award 2014 focused on the theme ‘Recover, Repair, Rebuild’.-PTI
