Having recently recommenced its India operations, the Italian National Tourist Board has been focused on organising various training programmes which provide in-depth training courses aimed at educating the travel fraternity on the various tourist products that Italy can offer. As part of its initiatives to this end, the Board is developing and launching its own website in India, followed by an online mini university which will certify agents as Italy Travel Specialist. This information was provided by Salvatore Ianniello, Representative India, Italian National Tourist Board when speaking with T3.
“The online mini university will come into effect with the launch of our new ENIT India website. This online course is a special educational tool designed, to give agents in-depth knowledge of all 20 regions of Italy. This program will provide agents an insight to new experiences in Italy. Further to this, we took a group of tour operators and journalists to explore and promote the fascinating region of Puglia in Italy, and received very positive feedback from the operators and journalists on this trip,” Ianniello added.
While the Board’s focus has been Delhi and Mumbai so far, Ianniello informed of ENIT’s plans to reach out to tier II cities in India as well, as they believe there is a lot of growth potential in these markets which are yet to be tapped. When asked about India’s importance as a market, Ianniello called it one of the top priority countries for Italy. “In the year 2002, this number stood at 69,000 tourist while at the end of 2012; there was a substantial increase to 250,000 tourist,” he said.
