Category Archives: NTO (National Tourist Offices)

Namaste Turkey has launched a brochure for 2016-17 comprising of 48 pages and includes over 15 unique itineraries for Turkey and combination of Turkey & Greece. These programmes are commissionable to the travel agents and tour operators at 10 per cent. Subhash Motwani, Director, Namaste Turkey, who was recently in Cappadocia to forge an alliance with key partners, is optimistic that Turkey will be doing exceptionally well in 2016, given that Turkish Airlines has excellent connectivity to Europe, US and Africa and with a valid Schengen, UK or US or OECD country visa, you can get a Turkey visa online instantly. Namaste Turkey has also introduced for the first time eight-day full board cruises from Bodrum and Marmaris with guaranteed departures from May until October 2016. This too is commissionable to travel agents and tour operators.

As of November 2015, more than 924,000 Indian travellers visited Singapore, registering 7.4 per cent growth, said Bridget Goh, Area Director India & Sri Lanka, Singapore Tourism Board. “India is the top five visitor market for Singapore with over 943,000 Indian travellers in 2014 and the average length of stay being 6.8 days,” she added. Singapore celebrated its Golden Jubilee last year by partnering with Tigerair for a successful marketing campaign targeting Indian travellers majorly from South India and Lucknow. “We are excited to continue our partnership with Tigerair and offer Indian travellers to start 2016 with attractive fares and indulge in spending quality time with loved ones in Singapore,” she said. As a popular destination among Indian travellers, Singapore has a multitude of experiences for a fun-filled family holiday as well as vibrant lifestyle offerings for working millennials seeking a short getaway.  

During January-September 2015, South Africa received 58,373 Indian arrivals to the country, shared Monika Iuel, General Manager-International Marketing, South African Tourism, at the Delhi leg of 4-city South African Tourism roadshow. She stated that they are hoping for exponential growth with the help of various campaigns, due for launch in 2016. Talking about the initiative, Hanneli Slabber, Country Head, South African Tourism, said that the Chalo South Africa and T20 World Cup campaigns set to launch on March 1 and March 10 respectively, will surely be beneficial in upping the tourist arrival number to the country. After Delhi, the South African Tourism roadshow moves to Hyderabad on January 21, and ends at Mumbai on January 22.

H.E. Erdal Sabri Ergen, Consul General of the Republic of Turkey, today said Turkey is in the process of changing its visa regime to make it easier for Indian travellers. Presently, Ordinary, Special and Service Indian passport holders are required to get a visa to enter Turkey. Indian travellers who have Ordinary, Special and Service passports with a valid Schengen or OECD member’s visa or residence permit may get their single entry e-Visas for Turkey valid for 30 days. Ergen said Turkey is also looking at increasing the flight frequency between the two countries. In view of the recent terror attacks in Istanbul, he said that tourism plays an important role in bringing peace in times of terrorism. Turkey boasts highest number of tourist visas issuance in Europe, at 95 per cent. He was speaking on the sidelines of IITT 2016 in Mumbai.

Li Yaying, Deputy Director General, Marketing and International Cooperation Department, China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), said that 674,000 Indian tourists visited China during January to December, 2015 and the mutual tourist visits is expected to exceed 1 million in 2016. Yaying said, “In 2015, a total of 120 million outbound trips were made by Chinese tourists, and the figure for India was also above 17 million. India has become a major emerging source of tourists to China.” After the success of ‘India Tourism Year’ in China which was celebrated last year, the opening ceremony of ‘China-India Tourism Year 2016’ will be held on January 14 at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi. CNTA has also designed nearly a 100 tourism promotions and exchange activities for the year. These include promotional films, ads, Fam visits to China and tourism promotional activities themed with the Silk Route. A dedicated page for the ‘China-India Tourism Year 2016’ will be launched in English on the overseas promotion website of Chinese Tourism to give better access to information.

The seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are going to conduct a combined roadshow in February along with OTM Mumbai. Haitham Mattar, CEO, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Authority, said at an event, “We have signed an agreement with the National Corporation for Tourism and Hotels to do a roadshow with them along with the Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and other emirates to come together and promote the UAE as a destination with its various offer.” Ras Al Khaimah is targeting one million visitors by the end of 2018 and is eyeing the Indian market robustly.

The Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority conducted a press conference in New Delhi on January 12, 2016, in an attempt to target the Indian tourism market. “India is currently the fourth largest inbound market for the emirate, after Germany, Russia and the UK,” said Haitham Mattar, CEO, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority. Ras Al Khaimah witnessed 16,000 Indian tourist arrivals into the emirate in the previous year. “We have seen an incredible 81 per cent year on year growth in tourists from India. By the end of 2018, the sub-continent is expected to be a big contributor to the emirate’s vision to attract one million visitors. We are working towards spreading awareness and conducting events to increase our partnership with the travel trade in India,” added Mattar. Ras Al Khaimah is primarily a family destination which also offers business, MICE, leisure, adventure and luxury travel.

India continues to remain the second-fastest growing market for Southwest Germany after China in percentage terms. India recorded a growth of 23.3 per cent for the period January to October 2015 with 27,615 visitors. Hector Dsouza, Director – India, Southwest German Tourism, says, “India is miles ahead. It is still has the highest number of overnights per visit, currently its 5.9 days per visit. The international average for Southwest Germany is 2.3 days. For the period ended October 2015, we recorded 162,843 overnights from India. By the end of 2015 we will have 2,00,000 overnights, which we targeted at the beginning of 2015. We are now expecting 40,000 Indian visitors in 2016 doing 2,50,000 overnights, an increase of 25 per cent from 2015.”

India is the eighth best source market for Tourism Australia, said Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia. He added, “We crossed the 200,000 arrivals landmark in 2015, A$ 1 billion spend, and improved our ranking to be the eighth-largest inbound market for Australia from 11th rank in 2014. The Tourism Forecasting Committee (TFC) is predicting 245,000 visitors from India for 2015-16 and a 12 per cent increase over 2014-15.” There were 187,000 visitors from India in the first 10 months of 2015, bringing the total for the year-ended October 2015 to 2,27,000; an increase of 18 per cent relative to the same period last year. For the year ended September 2015, Indian visitors contributed A$ 1.1 billion to the Australian economy; an increase of solid 34% over the previous year. Tourism Australia has unveiled its latest advertising campaign in collaboration with its key distribution partners – Cox & Kings, Mercury Travels, Kesari, MakeMyTrip, Yatra, TUI, Vacations Exotica, Kulin Kumar Holidays and SOTC. The integrated advertising campaign will retain the brand theme ‘There’s Nothing like Australia’ and put the spotlight on the country’s attractions.

Registering a huge surge over last year, the Philippines has recorded a growth of 40.54 percent in visitor arrivals from India in October 2015. According to the Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippines, there were 6590 visitor arrivals in October 2015 against 4689 in October 2014. Between January-October 2015, 61,155 Indian tourists travelled to the Philippines, recording an increase of 24.13 per cent. The India has jumped up to the 12th position for tourist arrivals in the Philippines in September 2015 and is consistently maintaining the position in the top 12 markets. SanJeet, Tourism Attaché, Philippines Tourism Marketing Office India, has attributed the showing to be in line with DOT’s plan of achieving 100,000 Indian tourist arrivals by 2017. He said that the double-digit growth in arrivals can also be attributed to major metros as well as feeder markets. “One of the main reasons is the increase in disposable income for leisure and travel related pursuits amongst middle and affluent class travellers. There has also been a steady increase in MICE movements as well as FITs and small groups travel from India,’’ he said. Travel agents credited continuous efforts made by the Philippines Tourism Marketing Office for increase in visitor arrivals. Samina Munshi, Director, N Chirag Travels, said, “We have seen an increase in demand and more people are willing to visit the Philippines as a holiday destination. Due to the increase in awareness, we get many queries on a daily basis. We are quite hopeful that 2016 would definitely double the visitor arrival numbers for the Philippines.” Agents also mentioned that there is a definite requirement of new destination matching features such as sightseeing, shopping, entertainment, friendly, economical and safety. …