First Ever ‘Mumbai Festival’ Receives DoT Support

Reema Sisodia - Mumbai

Inaugurated on January 14th, 2005, by the union minister for tourism, government of India, Renuka Chowdhury, the first-ever ‘Mumbai Festival’ that was held from January 14-23, 2005 took off with an objective of boosting tourism to the city. According to the convener of festival, colonel Sudhir Sawant, “The Department of Tourism (DoT) government of India along with the Maharashtra state government have given the festival tremendous support and encouragement. Publicity and announcements about the ‘Mumbai Festival’ in the international market has been done by the ministry of tourism under its ‘Incredible India’ campaign giving the festival an increased reach and awareness in foreign regions. Apart from other objectives, the economic objective of the festival is to promote tourism to the city and we are aiming to bring in approximately one million tourists into Mumbai by 2010.”

Along with various events that took place all across the city, from Mumbai Mela, art and heritage festival, children’s festivals, food festivals and a mega shopping festival, the Jazz festival that was held on January 16, 2005 received support from the Unites States (US) state department, with extensive publicity being undertaken about the Jazz event in the US. Adds Sawant, “This festival can also be regarded as a fine example of public-private synergy, as apart from the government both at the centre and the state level, the festival also receives encouragement from the corporate segment. Mahindra and Mahindra along with others have contributed in a big way towards the success of the festival. As the chairman of the ‘Mumbai Festival’, Anand G Mahindra, vice -chairman and managing director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, was the chairman of the ‘Mumbai Festival’ whose support in terms of infrastructure support as highly encouraging. “Being the first ever event and due to time constraint, we could not actively involve the Mumbai travel trade, which we definitely intend to do in the future.”