In order to accelerate the growth pace of the inbound arrivals, the Ministry of Tourism (MoT) is fine tuning its marketing strategy to spread awareness about its diverse tourism products to generate more traffic in different overseas markets. “We have recently appointed PR agency in the UK,” Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, said at the sidelines of an industry event. The Ministry recently signed a two year contract with McCluskey International to target consumer and trade segments to strengthen India’s image and appeal across a wide range of UK travellers. “We are also planning to appoint PR agency in two or three more countries. India will also be appointing new tourism marketing representatives in Argentina, Brazil, Russia, China and Japan in the next few months,” Zutshi said.
Agreeing with the fact that Incredible India campaign is absent in overseas markets, he said that there has been slight lull in last few months. “We are conscious of this. However, the camping has already started, it is running on CNN. We launched the campaign in the UK. We have adopted new approach to our campaigns. Basically, it is not only the advertisement in print media, but this time we are going to focus on market first and launch it at time when people generally start coming down to India from different markets depending on seasonality. Our media plan is not going to be based on what media to choose. Rather, it will be based on what medium to choose and the scheduling has to be matched with the inflow of tourists from these markets to India to optimise the maximum utilisation of the resources. It is going to be a combined exercise in totality,” Zutshi informed.
Along with the promotional strategy, the MoT is also in discussion with other ministries to ease and expand the horizon of e-Tourist Visa (eTV). “We have been discussing the challenges faced at eTV front at inter ministerial coordination meeting and the response is positive. Issues such as extension of the eTV validity from 30 to 60 days and to prominent sea ports has been raised and noticed. We have also requested for double-entry visa and the facility to be extended to MICE travellers. We have also suggested to the Home Ministry to provide the foreign travellers an option of applying for eTV, 60 days in advance. I am hopeful to get a positive result,” he added.
Talking on the dip in arrivals, Zutshi said that the Ministry is yet to release the official figure for the whole year. “If you compare the available figure with the global arrivals, we are still at par with global level. Once the year is over, we are going to sit down with Bureau of Immigration to get the final figure,” he said adding that he is still upbeat about a good growth.
He opined that tourism has been significantly contributing to the world economy. “The recent development has brought a paradigm shift in the mindset of people regarding tourism. We are looking at tourism as a way of transforming, not just the economy but the way of life of the people. Transformation for us is about creating opportunity for each and everyone at the destination. The New Tourism Policy encompasses all those issues required for the tourism growth in a changing scenario,” he added.
