Category Archives: NTO (National Tourist Offices)

South African Tourism (SAT) began its five-city roadshow from February 12-19 with Mumbai, followed by Kolkata, Bengaluru, Delhi and Ahmedabad. The 60-member strong participation from South Africa’s travel trade industry and scale is a reflection of the strong consumer demand witnessed from India. One of the key focus areas is to go create awareness about new destinations such as Oudtshoorn, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Port Elizabeth and the Drakensberg region. Hanneli Slabber, Regional General Manager, Asia/Australasia/Middle East, SAT, said, “The demands of Indian travellers are in a constant and rapid state of evolution. This makes cross sharing of insights, trends and observations between our Indian and South African partners extremely crucial. We have had South African products being tailored to suit these specific needs as a testament of the value proposition we see in the market.” Alpa Jani, Acting Hub-Head, Middle East/India/South East Asia, SAT, said, “We have always recorded an outstanding response from the Indian travel trade and are eagerly looking forward to seeing the positive impact this roadshow will have towards driving Indian traveller traffic to South Africa in 2018. We are also focusing on customising our engagements and product offerings to suit the unique requirements from each of our target regions within India.”  

The Austrian National Tourism Office hosted a press conference in Delhi on February 9. Partners from Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Zell am See-Kaprun and Swarovski Crystal World informed the media about the growth of visitor arrivals from India in 2017 and laid down the plans for 2018. Christine Mukharji, Director, ANTO, said, “Austria witnessed 177,700 arrivals from India in 2017, which was a 20.5 increase from 2016 and the overnights went up to 324,400, which is a 19.5% increase from last year.” Isabella Rauter, Public Relations Manager, Vienna Tourism Board; Andreas Reiter, Market Management, Spain, India and Arab Countries, Innsbruck Tourism; Inshvinder Maddh, India representative of Innsbruck Tourism; Klemens Kollenz, Sales and Marketing Manager, Salzburg Tourism; Christian Pfeffer, Marketing/Sales, Zell am See-Kaprun and Christiane Gasser, Head of Channel marketing, Swarovski Tourism Services, interacted with members of the press with interactive presentations on what each destination had to offer to Indian tourists.

India retained the top spot on Dubai’s list of source markets in 2017, contributing 2.1 million visitors and becoming the first country to cross the two-million mark in a single year. The country’s performance represented a 15 per cent year-on-year increase and validated, among other factors, the success of Dubai Tourism’s ongoing collaboration with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the #BeMyGuest campaign. Commenting on the annual performance, His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General, Dubai Tourism, said, “Under the visionary leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the emirate has continued to capture share of the global outbound travel market, complemented by a significant increase in tourism-driven economic contribution to the country’s GDP.” Driven by India, the South Asia region, in the third place, contributed an 18 per cent share of over 2.8 million visitors, up a strong 10.6 per cent, followed by the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and North and South-East Asia regions sharing the fourth position, each contributing close to 1.7 million visitors and independently commanding 11 per cent share, the former recording a 3.2 per cent increase and the latter, an impressive 23.6 per cent over 2016 visitation figures.  

The National Tourism Programme (Ministry of Economy) concluded its three-city roadshow titled ‘Visit UAE’ in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and finally Mumbai – the city that sees the maximum number of tourists visiting the UAE every year. This is the third roadshow in India in the recent few years. UAE welcomed 2.6 million Indian tourists in 2017. Abdulla Saleh Al Hammadi, Director, National Tourism Programme, said, “It gives us immense pleasure to revisit the city of Mumbai, which my country is familiar with and visits often. India is one of the most promising markets, and the UAE delegation is looking forward to build relationships and further strengthen ties with the people, especially the tourism industry, under the banner of the ‘Visit UAE’ campaign.” The ‘Visit UAE’ roadshow included a huge delegation of tourism officials, airlines, and senior members from the UAE’s tourism and hospitality industry. Local tourism departments included Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing–Dubai, Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority, Ajman Tourism Development Department, Fujairah Tourism & Antiquities Authority, Dubai Police and Dubai Health Authority.

In an attempt to harness the outbound tourism potential of the Indian market, ENIT—the Italian National Tourism Board is conducting a three-city roadshow in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Italy has revived its promotional activities in India and is positioning the destination as a luxurious hot-spot. Salvatore Ianniello, Representative—India, ENIT, informs, “In 2015, Italy received 427,000 Indian visitors for more than one million nights, registering a growth of 49 per cent over 2014. We have allotted a significant budget to now position Italy among the high-end clients from India. We are looking at doing joint promotions with the tour operators and travel agencies in India; we will also be launching our own ad campaign and continue the educational training of the travel agents.”

VisitBritain has launched ‘Find Your GREAT Britain, I Travel For’, a digital marketing campaign with UK Minister of State for Trade and Export Promotion Baroness Rona Fairhead, as part of the India-UK Createch Summit in Mumbai. The event was attended by more than 200 delegates from the travel trade industry across India, 50 UK businesses representing transport, technology, healthcare, film and music and a further 150 Indian businesses from a variety of industry sectors. Sally Balcombe, Chief Executive, VisitBritain said, “India is an important inbound tourism market and a huge opportunity for VisitBritain. Our new campaign builds on the strong growth we have seen in visits from India by showcasing that Britain is bursting with fun activities, adventure and new experiences to come and discover right now.” The first phase of VisitBritain’s campaign is rolling out from February 7 for eight weeks with the launch of short films across Facebook and Instagram in India. Research by VisitBritain shows the powerful influence social media has in positioning Britain as a destination of choice for international visitors. The ‘Find Your GREAT Britain, I Travel For’ marketing campaign is part of the UK Government’s global GREAT Britain campaign, which showcases the very best of what Britain has to offer as a place to visit, study and do business.

India has moved up to the third position from the fourth in terms of visitor arrivals to Singapore along with a double digit growth of 17 per cent growth until October 2017, and continues to be the third largest tourism receipts generating market for Singapore. Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has organised a two-city roadshow in Mumbai and Jaipur to deepen this relationship with the Indian travel trade. G.B. Srithar, Regional Director–South Asia Middle East & Africa, STB said, “India has always been a key source market for Singapore. We are happy to have already crossed 2016’s full year 1.1 million visitor arrivals mark from India as end October 2017. We thank all our trade fraternity for their support in bringing our destination promotion messages to our audiences. Through our roadshows, we seek to renew our ties with the travel trade, entrench existing partnerships and forge new ones through creative promotions.” Year 2017 was a landmark year for STB with strategic associations with a Bollywood movie ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’, participation in cruise forums, travel trade conferences, partnerships with airlines, launch of the Vegetarian Food Guide, penetration in the regional markets such as Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, etc. and the unveiling of a new brand identity.’

Trafalgar will host its inaugural Trafalgar Europe Britain Day as part of its efforts to provide agents a way to learn about travel destinations in Europe and Britain like an insider. It will partner with four European tourism offices in this first-of-its kind showcase exclusively for the trade in India. Atout France, Tourism Ireland, Tourism Office of Spain and Switzerland Tourism together with Trafalgar will present the iconic sites of the respective countries. Trafalgar’s ‘Insider Sessions’ will take place on February 7 in Mumbai and on February 9 in Bengaluru. Nicholas Lim, President, Trafalgar, Asia, says, “We want to help agents to grow their business by showcasing the diversity of Europe and the opportunities around it. We’re delighted to launch our Insider Sessions and in 2018, it’s time to travel to Europe with Trafalgar and live The Good Life. Agents who participate in these sessions will be eligible to win a grand prize of a nine-day ‘Spanish Experience’ holiday sponsored by Trafalgar. There will be two grand prizes given away – one for each city.”

Indian tourist arrivals to Israel have increased by 31 per cent from January to December, 2017 with around 60,000 Indian tourists visiting the country last year. This marks a growth of 48 per cent in the last two years, according to statistics released by Israel Ministry of Tourism (IMOT). Hassan Madah, Director, Israel Ministry of Tourism India & Philippines said, “2017 has been outstanding and by far the best year for Israel tourism in India and worldwide. By October, 2017 we already saw 49,000 Indians arrive in Israel, breaking previous records, and we were positive to close the year with 60,000 travellers to Israel from India. With over 20 million outbound tourists a year, India has been an important market for us. Introducing initiatives, including easing of the visa process and with airlines in India and Israel expressing interest to increase connectivity between the countries, I am confident that this growth will help us achieve 1 lakh Indian arrivals in 2018.”

Actor Ranveer Singh as Switzerland’s ambassador in India, has managed to drive a 25 per cent growth rate in overnights in the Alpine nation. Martin Nydegger, the newly appointed CEO of Switzerland Tourism, says, “We couldn’t be luckier to have Ranveer Singh as our country ambassador. He has really boosted the image of Switzerland in terms of tourism to make it younger, fresher, exciting and active. This is exactly how we want to position Switzerland in future to place it as the most desirable outdoor destination and he is helping us in doing just that.” “We are very happy to extend and continue with Ranveer Singh in 2018 and we are very much looking forward to that. We would always welcome all the production companies, stars and all the whole of Bollywood industry to continue shooting in Switzerland,” Nydegger added.