National Tourism Board of Italy (ENIT) has witnessed a 49 per cent growth in footfall from India in 2015. In 2015, ENIT welcomed around 4 65,000 travellers from India as compared to 280,000 in 2014.
“India is a very important market for Italy. Since we opened our office in 2000, we have witnessed a positive growth on an average of 15-20 per cent each year. We started with 69,000 tourists in 2000 and the peak moment was 2008 and later on in 2015 we have seen another peak moment. In 2014, tourism figures went up to 2, 80,000. In 2015, we have witnessed a growth of 49 per cent with 465, 000 travellers from India. The overnights have exceeded 1.65 million which is a great performance for us. India is a great country which has a lot of interest for Italy and the perception here has changed,” Salvatore Ianniello, India Representative, ENIT said.
In August and October 2016, Central Italy was hit by major earthquakes. Despite the unfortunate incident, tourism to the destination was unaffected. “The earthquake was a very unfortunate incidence for our nation. But, this incidence took place during a time when it was a low season for tourism and hasn’t affected a lot of tourists. Especially from the India market we didn’t witness any cancellations or dip in tourism numbers,” he added.
According to the latest statistics, India has emerged as the fifth largest market for Italy behind North America, Europe, Japan and China. Indians on an average spend around four nights when in groups. But FITs travel around Italy for as long as 15-20 days. “The average spend per family is around US$2500. According to the latest statistics, 80 per cent of the Indians stay in four star and five star properties. We are now very keen to attract the luxury travellers and are focused to promote products like wine tourism, gastronomy, skiing, wellness and spa. Italy is a well connected country within a stretch of an hour a traveller can enjoy skiing, mountains, beaches and spa all together.”
Recently, there were reports of mass tourism in Italy which causes a hindrance for the locals in their day to day life. When asked about the measures taken to curb this kind of mass tourism in the country, “Italy is a very popular destination globally. We receive a lot of tourists in our nation throughout the year. Presently, the lesser known destinations are also attracting a lot of travellers. We have enforced some restrictions in such smaller destinations. The Italian board regulates some entry numbers in such destinations.”
ENIT is all set to organise a series of roadshow in the last quarter of 2017. The destination is now all set to showcase novel attractions to the Indian audience and is looking to tap the luxury travellers.
Ianniello said, “We are looking to tap every segment from India. We are a 365 days destination with all segments. Some segments are new to India like Skiing, Wine, Gastronomy, but Indians are very well aware of where to go and what to see. The middle upper class segment in India is very knowledgeable and does their research and the do Italy alone and in detail. They go across the country. We also have a large repeat clientele who do such niche segments. Weddings and MICE is also very important for us. We had three Indian weddings last year.”
