Rajasthan was poised to take back the space of the country’s leading tourism hub in the country with the state witnessing a “huge energy” in the sector, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said. The target of 50 million tourist arrivals by 2020 to Rajasthan would be met much earlier with over 47 million tourist arrivals already have come to the state by end of 2017, the Chief Minister said at the inauguration of the 10th edition of the Great India Travel Bazaar (GITB) concluded recently in Janipur.
Raje further said that the logo and tagline “Jane Kya Dikh Jaye” has created a buzz the world over. The aggressive and creative marketing campaign had translated into impressive increase in the tourist arrivals. Small wonder then, she said, that the state had recently won the prestigious ET Brand Equity Award. In fact, Rajasthan Tourism had bagged as many as 47 awards in the past 4 years.
The Chief Minister also thanked the Union Government for having supported the tourism circuits in Rajasthan while helping the intra-air connectivity in the state, thus linking Jaipur to Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner. A long standing demand of Jaipur being connected to Agra with air had also been fulfilled. Soon there would be flights from Jaipur to Varanasi. She hoped that Jaipur would also get connectivity to Kochi via Goa in times to come.
During the keynote address, Rashmi Verma, Union Tourism Secretary, said that in Rajasthan, Amer Fort has been selected as one of the 10 iconic sites from India to be developed in order to provide a better experience to the tourists.
Speaking about the success of GITB 2018, Subodh Agarwal, Additional Chief Secretary Tourism, Government of Rajasthan, said that GITB has had a very positive response this year as well. Such global scale events are helping bring Rajasthan on the world map. “The pre-structured meetings were customised to meet the needs of the respective buyers. The event also saw a large number of first-timers who benefited from various business interactions under one roof,” he further said.
Speaking about Department of Tourism initiatives towards curating a digitised tourism marketing campaign, Agarwal said, “Rajasthan has fully transformed its marketing strategy with an aggressive campaign with new elements like an award-winning logo, vibrant website, exquisite presence across all social media handles, and adopting the concept of co-creation by telling ‘One’s own story’.”
Giving a snapshot of the Rajasthan Tourism industry, Subodh Agarwal, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Rajasthan, said that in the year 2016-17, the tourist occupancy in hotels was 65 per cent compared to in 2015 which was 58.9 per cent. This is despite the fact the inventory of rooms have gone up by 50 per cent. The Jaipur airport is currently operating more than 70 flights with international carriers like Air Asia and Air Asia X.
Jyotsna Suri, Chairman Tourism Committee, FICCI said that a total of 280 foreign buyers from 55 countries and 270 Indian exhibitors are participating in this colossal bazaar. GITB 2018 will witness around 11,000 pre-scheduled, structured B2B meetings in two days. In the past 10 years GITB has emerged as the leading inbound tourism mart.
