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India Tourism Office opens in China

— Photo: Pallavi Aiyar

Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni inaugurating the India Tourism Office in Beijing. Ambassador to China Nirupama Rao (second right) is seen.

Beijing: One of central Beijing’s iconic buildings, the lipstick-shaped LG Towers, acquired a new occupant on Monday: the first India Tourism Office in China.

Inaugurated by Minister for Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni, the new office will attempt to lure an increasing percentage of the 40 million-plus Chinese who travel abroad every year.

Last year, India attracted only 68,000 of these. Despite China being India’s largest trade partner, Chinese visitors to India in fact make up less than 2 per cent of the total number of foreign visitors to the country.

Until now, the vast Chinese market was looked after by India Tourism’s Japan office, a lacuna it is hoped the new China office will address. The office has three employees and its primary function will be dissemination of India-tourism related information in the Chinese language. As part of this effort, the Ministry of Tourism’s Incredible India website has been translated into and made available in Chinese.

Last year, India and China held a year of “Friendship through Tourism Year,” which saw the opening of a China Tourism Office in New Delhi.

At present, there is a startling asymmetry between the number of Chinese tourists visiting India and the flow of travellers from the reverse direction.

In 2007, 4,62,450 Indians visited China, which according to China National Tourism Administration figures, is several times the number of Chinese who travelled to India.

One of the aims of the new office will thus be to redress this imbalance in bilateral tourism figures.

Ms. Soni said China held tremendous potential for Indian tourism. This potential must be tapped by devising affordable package tour options tailored for the Chinese market in addition to leveraging Chinese interest in India’s Buddhist tourism circuit.

The inauguration of the office kicked off a week-long series of tourism promotion activities here and Shanghai. On Monday, an “Incredible India” evening in Beijing included an hour-long classical dance performance, choreographed by Leela Samson and involving over 70 dancers. An Indian food festival was also launched.

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