At the recently concluded three-city interactive seminar in Bengaluru, Kolkata and Mumbai, Instituto Nacional de Promoción Turistica (INPROTUR), the Argentina Tourism Board educated travel agents about the destination and its various offerings. The interactive seminar gave the tourism board a chance to interact directly with India’s leading tour operators, key decisions-makers from the industry, airline representatives, travel agents and the media.
Commenting on the success of the tree-city seminar, Pablo Cagnoni, Market Coordinator – Asia, Oceania and Africa, INPROTUR said, “We interacted with over 400 agents during the three-city seminar and received an encouraging response. We plan to aggressively promote Argentina in the Indian market, since we see great potential for Argentina as a mono-destination in the market.”
After observing a growing interest in the Indian market for Argentina, Cagnoni thinks this was a great platform to educate the travel agents about their products helping them design appropriate packages for clients. “The main target segment, currently, is the high-end consumer and discerning travellers as it is generally an option considered by these two segments due to high airfares.”
According to Medha Sampat, Director, Knack Marketing, India Representative for INPROTUR, the aim of the seminar was to reach out to the three major markets. She also stated that the destination has seen an ascent in the number of Indian arrivals, especially after the recent FIFA World Cup in Brazil, which brought the entire continent of South America in the limelight of global tourism. “Argentina is a still a new destination and it is imperative that we promote this destination more to put it on every travellers list,” she said.
The Argentina Tourism Board is currently developing a marketing strategy for the Indian market on similar lines of the “International Marketing Plan 2012 – 2015 ConectAR” that provides some guidelines that will position Argentina as a destination of excellence. “Various strategies have been implemented based on the needs, wants and expectations of potential tourists. Our current aim is B2B promotions to penetrate the Indian market. Our focus is to get the distribution in place and get travel agents familiar with the destination,” informed Sampat further adding that Argentina Tourism has also developed a new experiential website: www.argentina.travel, which is extremely user friendly.
Touching on the topic of visa clearance, Tomas Ferrari, Consul General of Argentina in Mumbai, said, “We have witnessed a growing interest in Indian travellers to come visit Argentina which clearly shows the relationship the two countries share. We are very encouraged by this interest and want to assure people that getting a visa for Argentina is not difficult if all the paperwork is in order.”
Explaining the importance of working together with the travel trade Cagnoni stated that they want a mutual exchange between Indian and Argentine suppliers, which will promote tourism ties between both countries. “I want Argentine suppliers to understand the market and bring tourists to India.”
INPROTUR will be participating with a delegation of five to six suppliers at major travel trade events in India such as SATTE.
