The Hindu : Tourism Dept. to build on `Incredible India'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 03, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Tourism Dept. to build on `Incredible India'

By Our Special Correspondent

The Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, interacting with delegates at the Singapore stall during the inauguration of International Conference on Tourism and Heritage at Hyderabad on Tuesday. The Tourism Minister, T. Srinivas Yadav, is also seen.

HYDERABAD Dec. 2. The recently-launched aggressive marketing campaign globally with the tag line "Incredible India", for positioning and branding India, has been doing well and the Tourism Department would build on it, focussing on US and Chinese markets, Rathi Vinay Jha, Secretary, Union Ministry of Tourism, said here on Tuesday.

Speaking at the three-day Fourth International Conference cum Showcase, "India: Tourism and Heritage - Challenge 21", organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry with China as partner country, she said a television promo was now being aired in the channels in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, South Asia and the USA, besides the centralised advertising campaign launched coinciding with beginning of the new international tourist season.

In addition, it was focussing on the US market with a massive Internet campaign targeting the wide audience of surfers and then on Chinese market, through TV and Internet. The Tourism Department planned to launch websites in Chinese and Korean, adding to the existing ones in French, German and Spanish. "The core propositions of the campaign are to concentrate on key markets, converge different media options, sharpen the targeting exercise and deliver in a concentrated burst," she said.

Mrs. Jha said India was all set to be a "very popular tourist destination of the world", with a 14.6 percent rise in international tourist arrivals and a 22.4 per cent growth in foreign exchange between January and October this year compared to the same period previous year. She called upon the tourism industry to design packages keeping in mind the traveller of the future, who would be knowledgeable, alert, demanding and discerning. He sought experience out of a visit and not just the beauty of its sights. A more active tourist would be interested not just in the three Ss - Sun, sea and sand but in three Es- Entertainment, excitement and education. "We also require an army of smiling workers".

Inaugurating the conference and the exhibition, the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, said there was immense potential for tourism, with the country expected to host 40 million foreign tourists by the year 2020, generating revenue of Rs. one trillion. "All isms have gone and it is only tourism that is going to thrive", he added, suggesting projection of India's nature and heritage, as the twin unique sales propositions for tourism.

Mr. Naidu said his Government has accorded top priority to promoting tourism, identifying it as a major engine for economic growth. It had opened up the sector and aimed at making Hyderabad a tourist hub between Europe and China. Welcoming the Chinese delegation, he expressed his admiration for the reforms with a human face, initiated by that country.

Gu Zhaoxi, Vice-Chairman, China National Administration, said there was a high degree of interest amongst the people of China and India in knowing each other and the Sino -Indian tourism was on the verge of a massive take-off. The growth rate of tourism sector in China was almost one and half times faster than that of its GDP. Welcoming Indian tourists to China, he expected blossoming of bilateral tourism in the coming years.

Maharaja Gaj Singh, chairman of CII national committee on Tourism and heritage said India and China were virtually sitting on a goldmine of untapped bilateral tourism. Lauding China's granting of "approved destination status" to India, he said the next logical step should be relaxation of visa regimes.

K. Satish Reddy, chairman, CII Andhra Pradesh, said the State was the second highest recipient of the domestic tourists but it required special efforts to attract foreign tourists. D. V. Manohar, former chairman of CII Andhra Pradesh proposed a vote of thanks.

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