NEW DELHI: Minister of State for Tourism K J Alphons today said all night open restaurants and night markets are some of the proposals being considered by his ministry to promote tourism and clarified that by promoting “night-life” he did not mean just night-clubs but wholesome entertainment.

He said there was a need to have activities around monuments after sunset too.

The minister said by promoting “night-life” he did not mean “night-clubs” but wholesome entertainment and revenue generation for the tourism sector 24×7.

“Night clubs are just a small part of the night life that we want to promote. We cannot have tourists go to their rooms and shut their doors at 7 pm.

“We need to have clean entertainment like shopping, restaurants thats how you make big money. We cannot just earn through ticketing monuments, we need to have activities around the monuments too after dark,” Alphons said.

Tourism Secretary Rashmi Verma said the ministry had taken the initiative to illuminate all monuments, so that tourists can enjoy them after dark.

The ministry is also in talks with the Archaeological Survey of India to keep these monuments open after sunset, she said.

Meanwhile, briefing media persons here today after his participation in World Tourism exhibition, Internationale Tourismus-Börse (ITB) 2018 in Messe, Berlin, Germany on March 7 where India won the Best Exhibitor Award for Australia and Oceania category, Alphons said the icing on the cake was the tremendous success of the ministry’s new campaign Film -“Yogi of the Racetrack”

Launched on March 7, the film has had seven million views on Twitter. The views were growing each hour. More than 100 countries participated in the ITB-Berlin meet with their respective Tourism Ministers.