India takes a big leap to become 'The Tourism Destination of the 21st Century'

Nearly 3 million tourists arrived in India in the year 2003 and this year the target is to grow the number even higher. To achieve this objective, the Government of India Tourism has intensified efforts through a worldwide campaign under the very successful 'Incredible India' Banner.

To substantiate the efforts, the Tourism department of India has launched special initiatives to achieve its goal of making India the top tourist destination in the world. The Tourism Department in India has announced 35 Centres of Excellence as 'Tourism Hubs'. Some prominent features of the new initiative are: Setting up of special tourist circuits for cultural regeneration of India,
Rejuvenation of over 150 great centres of Jain culture, Restoration and improvement of sacred places associated with Buddhism and Development of memorial parks.

This year will witness the largest ever presence by India at the Arabian Travel Mart in Dubai in May. India Tourism is expecting a very big delegation from India. In this 11th year of successful participation at Arabian Travel Market, India Tourism has taken a very large stand measuring 400 sq. m. - this is the largest ever space taken by India. At this mart, India Tourism will showcase the India product that is sold by many Indian agencies, as well as various Indian State Tourism packages promoted by State Tourism departments like Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, UP and Uttaranchal.

India Tourism, Dubai, has been making all efforts to boost tourist traffic to India, in association with Air India, Indian Airlines, Gulf Air, Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airways, and various travel agencies and trade partners. In fact, by networking and synergising all efforts, India Tourism has substantially raised tourist traffic to India. There has been a 43% increase in outbound tourists from the UAE in 2003 over 2002.

What's more, India has been voted among top 5 destinations- according to the independent travellers survey by 'Lonely Planet'. India was amongst the top 5 in the global survey along with Thailand, Italy, Australia, and New Zealand.

All this augurs well & provides renewed impetus to the Regional India Tourism Office, Dubai to further promote the 'India Product' under the unified 'Incredible India' campaign.

The efforts to boost tourism included road shows, seminars and workshops in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman, in addition to participation at exhibitions at Bahrain, Beirut, Cairo and Dubai. India Tourism will participate in the Tourism Salon in Algiers, that is being organized by the Ministry of Tourism, Algeria. "We will be showcasing the 'India product' at the exhibition.

India participated at the EMITT 2004 held at Istanbul last month. The India stall won the 'Most Creative Stall' award.

In April/May 2004, India Tourism will take part in the Emirates Holidays workshop, during which Emirates Holidays will have the worldwide launch of their brochure. Agents from India will be there to make presentations on India to local agents. Besides India, there will be 26 other countries presenting their destinations at this workshop.

Meanwhile the 'Incredible India' campaign launched by the Ministry of Tourism two years back has gathered momentum, and become very much visible on the international scene. According to the latest survey by Condé Nast Traveler, India is ranked among the top 5 must-see countries in the world. It speaks of the popularity of 'Incredible India' in the travel market. During ongoing promotions and awareness campaign, India Tourism will be sponsoring radio shows with lucrative raffle prizes for participants. These shows will also feature expert comments from various officials in the Tourism Industry of India to educate listeners about India. This interactive programme will be targeted at locals as well as NRIs.

The most recent initiative by the India Tourism Office, Dubai has been to develop colourful & informative brochures on India in languages like Arabic, Turkish & Farsi to get closer to the potential tourists in the region.

Since the beginning of 2003, the year which saw an appreciable increase in tourist traffic to India, India Tourism has been involved in concerted multimedia promotions. We were quite visible in the print and electronic media. The press was very positive in covering India Destinations through Arabic and English articles, news coverage, briefings etc. India Tourism was also instrumental in sponsoring the media members' visits to India from the West Asia region.

As part of the same initiative, India Tourism Dubai has organised to send Ms Gloria Kifayeh, a renowned photographer from the region on a FAM tour to India. Ms Kifayeh joined a group of eminent media people from across the world who got a glimpse of India on a week long familiarity tour on the Deccan Odyssey.

The TV campaign in January 2004 on the popular & effective Pan Arab Satellite channels was one of the key initiatives to get closer to the Arab target audience. We also propose to continue the effort of reaching more Arabs through the electronic media to attract more and more tourist to India from this region.

The regional India Tourism Office Dubai has been engaging in Destination specific promotions with trade partners. The government of India has been laying special emphasis on improving the infrastructure requirements in India as one of the key initiatives in their pursuit of making India world's top tourist destination.