The heightened security threat and global recession leading to negative growth in foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) for the fourth consecutive month, the tourism ministry is making an all-out effort to woo back international tourists with its “Visit India” campaign.
A joint initiative by the government and the tourism industry, the campaign offers various complimentary packages developed by airlines and hotels.
“At the just concluded International Tourism Exchange (ITB) at Berlin, we had very good response. From the feedback received from tour operat
ors, we hope for a 10 to 20 per cent increase in FTAs from European countries,” said the tourism secretary, Mr Sujit Banerjee.
He said an Online initiative has also been launched in select markets the world over and road shows are being organised in various countries to attract tourists. “With CISF agreeing to provide security to hotels and tourist sites, the security concern has been addressed,” the secretary said.
He said despite the global recession and terror attacks, India’s growth rate was 5.6 per cent last year. “We are number eight in terms of tourism growth,” Mr Banerjee said. The seven countries above India include Indonesia, Macaw, Fiji, Chile, Cambodia, Korea and Mexico.
The country had however registered negative growth for the fourth consecutive month.
While it was 2.5 per cent in November, 12.5 per cent in December, 17.6 per cent in January, the FTAs went down by 10. 6 per cent in February.
This is despite the fact that these months are considered peak months for tourism in India and FTAs had registered over 16 per cent growth between 2002 and 2007. As a part of its Visit India 2009 campaign, which aims at wooing international tourists, the tourism ministry has added wellness tourism as its fifth component. The other four components include airlines, hotels, sight-seeing tours and rural tourism.
source : www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=247549
A joint initiative by the government and the tourism industry, the campaign offers various complimentary packages developed by airlines and hotels.
“At the just concluded International Tourism Exchange (ITB) at Berlin, we had very good response. From the feedback received from tour operat
ors, we hope for a 10 to 20 per cent increase in FTAs from European countries,” said the tourism secretary, Mr Sujit Banerjee.He said an Online initiative has also been launched in select markets the world over and road shows are being organised in various countries to attract tourists. “With CISF agreeing to provide security to hotels and tourist sites, the security concern has been addressed,” the secretary said.
He said despite the global recession and terror attacks, India’s growth rate was 5.6 per cent last year. “We are number eight in terms of tourism growth,” Mr Banerjee said. The seven countries above India include Indonesia, Macaw, Fiji, Chile, Cambodia, Korea and Mexico.
The country had however registered negative growth for the fourth consecutive month.
While it was 2.5 per cent in November, 12.5 per cent in December, 17.6 per cent in January, the FTAs went down by 10. 6 per cent in February.
This is despite the fact that these months are considered peak months for tourism in India and FTAs had registered over 16 per cent growth between 2002 and 2007. As a part of its Visit India 2009 campaign, which aims at wooing international tourists, the tourism ministry has added wellness tourism as its fifth component. The other four components include airlines, hotels, sight-seeing tours and rural tourism.
source : www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=247549
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