Category Archives: NTO (National Tourist Offices)

Visit Scotland gathered its top tour operators and travel trade associations for a roundtable discussion in Mumbai on the sidelines of its three-city roadshow to help push numbers and get feedback from them. Explaining the reason behind this initiative, Vineet Lal, Senior Market Manager (Long Haul & Emerging Markets), Visit Scotland, said, “We along with Etihad Airways met a lot of our top trade partners and travel trade associations in Mumbai to look at how we can increase the volume and value of the Indian market to Scotland. A lot of the conclusions were around the ability to communicate what Scotland has to offer, communicating Scotland’s top experiences and also working on a program of education both in Scotland and in India so that people on both sides understand how to do business with each other.” The Visit Scotland delegation, that includes seven Scottish suppliers, is in India on its India Business Development Mission to encourage the development of Scotland products among the travel trade in India. It was in Mumbai on February 22 and will travel to Chandigarh on February 23-24, followed by New Delhi on February 25-26. Mumbai saw around 100 attendees at Scotland workshop and around 50 at the networking dinner.

The Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippines is conducting the ‘Visit the Philippines Year (VPA) 2016’ roadshow for its travel trade partners based in Ahmedabad on February 24, 2016. The 25-member delegation is led by Raymond Glen A. Agustin, Chief Tourism Operation Officer, Market Development Group- Russia, India & the Middle East, DOT Philippines. The delegation comprises of hoteliers, resorts, spas, and representatives of tour attractions, interacted with over 100 key travel and tour operators, MICE providers, up-market leisure operators and media personnel. The roadshow, also held in Pune on Feb 22, included interactive B2B sessions, educaion programmes and workshops to aid trade members in planning itineraries and responding to customer queries in these cities. Speaking at the event, Raymond Glen A. Agustin affirmed that India is an important source market for the Philippines with 74,824 Indians visiting the destination last year, which was a 22.36 per cent year-on-year increase. Overall, the Philippines expect to welcome 100,000 Indian tourists by 2017. VPA 2016 campaign’s aim is to drive excitement among travellers so that they revisit the country in 2016 for more fun and adventure and to garner fabulous memories to cherish. “In order to strengthen co-operation between DOT and our important business partners in the Indian travel industry, several promotional activities such as roadshows, taxi branding, participation in fairs and exhibitions and Fam trips have been carried out and further activities will be organized during this year,” added Glen. As a part of its marketing development strategy, Department of Tourism, Philippines has recently branded 100 radio cabs in Pune and Ahmedabad.  

The Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippines is conducting its ‘Visit the Philippines Year (VPA) 2016’ roadshow today in Pune for its travel trade partners in the city. A 25-member delegation, comprising hoteliers, resorts, spas, and representatives of tour attractions, will interact with key travel and tour operators, MICE providers, up-market leisure operators and media personnel. Raymond Glen A. Agustin, Chief Tourism Operation Officer, Market Development Group- Russia, India & the Middle East, DOT Philippines, will lead the delegation. The roadshow will include interactive B2B sessions, education programmes and workshops to aid trade members in planning itineraries and responding to customer queries in these cities. The Indian market continues to be one of the important contributors of international visitors to the Philippines. In the upcoming year, targeting over 25% rise in outbound travel from India.

Indonesia is keen on increasing flight frequency to India and is in talks with AirAsia and Garuda Indoensia for the same. Saut Siringoringo, Consul General, Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia, revealed that Indonesia expects to have good connectivity to India and will soon be operating direct flights from India. It has been in discussions with various airlines for increasing flights to India. He said, “The Ministry of Tourism will probably appoint AirAsia for direct flights to India, but there is a possibility of other airlines as well, like Garuda Indonesia.” He added that the Indonesian Minister of Transportation attended the ‘Make In India Week’ in Mumbai and analysed the prospects of direct connectivity. Indonesia recently held its own two-city roadshow in Chennai and Mumbai in mid-February. He says, “We have a lot of travel agents from Indonesia participating in the roadshow besides the Indian travel agents. The Ministry of Tourism came from Jakarta to showcase Indonesia in India for this. We chose Chennai because Medan, which is the capital of North Sumatra, has a town named Madras where people of Indian origin reside so there is a deep link between these cities. Many people from Tamil Nadu or Karnataka fly to Medan for this reason. This is why Chennai is important as a market. We also have our Indonesian Travel Provision Centre (ITPC) there along with our Honorary Consulate in Chennai.”

A total of 79 buyers from India have registered till date for the 15th Thailand Travel Mart Plus Amazing Gateway to the Greater Mekong Subregion to be held for the first time in the northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai between June 8-10, 2016. This is currently the highest number and is projected to grow further before the registration deadline ends on March 15, 2016. Opened for the first time to ASEAN national tourism organisations, the event had registered 321 buyers of whom 142 were first timers, and 305 exhibitors of whom 72 were first timers, as of February 11 surpassing the last edition’s count of 258 sellers and 49 first-timers recorded in March 2015. Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Dr. Yuthasak Supasorn commented, “Such a large turnout of both buyers and sellers will help us meet one of the most important criteria cited by both sides in their feedback forms, which is to meet new people.” TAT is expecting 400 buyers from 50 countries.

Sri Lanka received 28,895 Indian tourists in January 2016, an increase of 25.9 per cent this year as compared to the same period in 2015. The total number of tourists in Sri Lanka rose by 24.3 per cent in January 2016, with 194,280 tourist arrivals as compared to the 156,246 in January 2015. The data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed that India contributed 14.8 per cent of the total tourist arrivals, retaining the spot as the largest source market for the country. The region wise data of tourist arrivals for January 2016 showed 122.3 per cent increase from China; 48.1 per cent increase from the East Asia; 23.8 per cent increase from Western Europe; 20.7 per cent increase from South Asia; 17.9 per cent from Australasia; 17.3 per cent increase from North America; 17.2 per cent increase from the US; 14.7 per cent increase from the Middle East; 11.6 per cent from Africa and 11.1 per cent increase from Eastern Europe. However, Sri Lanka witnessed a decline of 9.5 per cent from Russia and 28.5 per cent decline from Pakistan for the month of January 2016 as compared to the same period in 2015. SLTDA has set a target of 2.5 million tourist arrivals by the end of 2016.

Isra Stapanaseth has been appointed the Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand New Delhi with North & East India, Bangladesh, Bhutan & Nepal as the areas of responsibility. Stapanaseth previously was the TAT Director of Chiang Rai and replaces Runjuan Tongrut who headed North and East India for the past four years. Thailand crossed the one million mark for Indian tourist arrivals in 2015 and registered a total of 1,069,149 arrivals marking a year-on year growth of 14.64 per cent over the same period in 2014, according to data released by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, Govt. of Thailand. India is Thailand’s sixth biggest source market and the country is aiming for a 10 per cent growth in Indian arrivals in 2016.

Indonesia received approximately 262,000 Indian arrivals in 2015, and are aiming for 350,000 this year, announced H.E. Rizali Wilmar Indrakesuma, Ambassador of Indonesia to India during the U&I Holidays Bali roadshow in New Delhi. The first day of the first ever 5-city roadshow saw the presence of 23 participants from Bali out of which 21 hotel properties, an Indian restaurant and the Bali Zoo were available to interact with guests and give out information. “We are here to promote Bali and to increase awareness about the variety of products Bali is well-known for,” said Shyam Upadhyay, Director, U&I Holidays. He furthered announced that the DMC would be launching their online portal this year. The roadshow began in Delhi on Feb 5, and will go on to Chennai on Feb 8, Bengaluru on Feb 9, Ahmedabad on Feb 11 and Mumbai on Feb 12, respectively.

India is the top international source market for Dubai as per the latest 2015 annual figures revealed by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism). With a year-on-year growth of 26 per cent, bringing in over 1.6 million tourists, India was the second fastest growing top 10 source market for Dubai Tourism in 2015. Overall, Dubai attracted more than 14.2 million overnight visitors, recording a strong 7.5% increase over 2014 – double the United Nations World Travel Organisation’s (UNWTO) projected 3-4% global travel growth for the same period. South Asia has been one of the largest regions by volume bringing in 2.3 million visitors reflecting a 21.7% increase versus 2014. His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General, Dubai Tourism, said “2015 has been a very strong year for Dubai’s travel sector with double the global industry growth levels firming up our position as the fourth most visited city in the world. South Asia, especially India, has performed phenomenally well. India has always been a key market for us and we believe our efforts to adopt a highly segment-specific approach in cities with the highest connectivity and latent capacity, as well as building stronger trade ties in market with digital travel intermediaries, have yielded results and will continue to enable Dubai capture share of the growing Indian upper middle-class family and business segments. His Excellency Almarri added, “Repeat visitation from Indian travellers remains a priority and as our destination proposition continues to grow and diversify, we are better placed than ever to continually offer visitors more reasons to come back time again, whether for leisure or as part of an ever increasing business and event line-up. We are also seeing …

Switzerland Tourism, Swiss Travel System, and Rail Europe have launched the Swiss Travel Pass Superstar Program 2016 to promote brand awareness and enhance knowledge of various Swiss Travel Passes among the travel agents and tour operators in India. Ritu Sharma, Deputy Director & Media Manager- India, Switzerland Tourism, said, “Swiss Travel Pass Superstar program 2016 is meant for the travel agents and tour operators. It will be a 6 month program in which, every month, agents have to answer 10 questions and also sell maximum number of travel passes to stand a chance to win exciting prizes. Also travel agents will have to upload the number of travel passes being sold by them.  At the end of every month a winner will be announced and at the end of the six months there will be a grand winner. The top 30 performers will win a week long holiday to Switzerland which includes airfares, hotel stay, sightseeing, meals etc.” Sharma revealed this during a roadshow in Mumbai recently. In 2015 the program witnessed around 850 participants and this year Switzerland Tourism along with their partners expects double the number of participants than last year. The Switzerland tourism board also recorded a 21 per cent growth in 2015. The main thrust is to encourage agents to sell more travel passes with longer durations to customers. The minimum number of days is 3-4 and with this program agents are expected to sell travel passes for eight days so people enjoy longer stay in Switzerland. Switzerland tourism along with its partners will be doing training sessions in three other cities including Chandigarh, Delhi and Ahmedabad apart from Mumbai. India is the top source market for …