New Delhi, The Indian hospitality industry will promote responsible tourism and sound environmental practices, a top industry lobby official said here Wednesday.

"The theme for the 44th Annual Convention of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) will be 'responsible tourism'," said FHRAI vice president Rajindera Kumar at a press meet here.

This year the convention will be held in Shanghai, China in a bid to showcase India.

"While 400,000 Indians visited China last year, only 90,000 Chinese visited India," Kumar said, adding, "We want to correct this imbalance."

Announcing the programme of the convention to be organised between Oct 11 and 14 next, Kumar said the aim of picking this theme was to encourage and promote environmentally sound practices in the industry.

"During the next six years, more than 1.6 billion people around the world will be visiting various destinations including India and China," said the federation's secretary general Harish Sud.

"We want to make sure that these tourists do not create a negative impact on the people, societies, and environments that they will be visiting," he added.

"For the first time, our annual convention will be a carbon neutral one," said Sunit Kothari, a member of the convention organising committee and of FHRAI's western region executive committee.

"The FHRAI will be spending money to buy carbon credits to make the convention a carbon neutral one," said Vinod Kala, managing director of Emergent Ventures India Pvt Ltd.

Kala's company, also known as Evi, is a leading advisory firm offering solutions and services for clean development mechanism.

FHRAI has roped in Evi to promote clean technologies and clean practices in the hotel industry. Evi is also helping the federation to make this year's convention carbon neutral.

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