Category Archives: NTO (National Tourist Offices)

Tourism Australia has appointed Bollywood actress Parineeti Chopra as the first Indian woman ambassador for the ‘Friend of Australia’ (FOA) advocacy panel. The FOA recognition was presented to Parineeti by Australian Consul General, HE Tony Huber, for her contribution in promoting Australia. This appointment will help to further cement the close ties between Australia and India. The FOA programme has been devised as a way for Tourism Australia to foster mutually beneficial and long-term ‘friendships’ with those they regard as unique, positive and influential storytellers. Parineeti Chopra joins Chef Sanjeev Kapoor and cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle as fellow Indian Friends of Australia, who have been great advocates for Australia, encouraging Indians to visit the land Down Under. Chopra is all set to visit Queensland and Northern Territory, exploring Australia’s aquatic and coastal experiences, rugged outback, unique wildlife and its incredible variety of world-class food and wine offering. Being a lover of nature and adventure, Parineeti’s trip to Brisbane, Gold Coast and Ayers Rock will see her indulging in adventurous activities such as whale watching cruise, meet the dolphins, surfing, Sky point adventure climb, helicopter flight over the Ayers Rock (Uluru), Harley Davidson ride, aboriginal experiences, and witness the spectacular ‘Field of Light’ installation in the Red Centre of Australia, among many others.

In a bid to promote its products and offerings, NBTC Holland Marketing hosted its sales mission in New Delhi in association with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Jet Airways. Carola Muller, Global Travel Trade Manager, NBTC Holland Marketing, said, “ India is an important and growing market for Holland and we want it to grow further. In fact, India is pour fastest growing market and we foresee a 15 per cent rise in arrival numbers by the end of this year.” The three-city sales-mission will now go to Bengaluru and Mumbai to educate the trade about íts destination and products. Other partners for the mission include Blue Boat Company, Efteling, Henri Willig, ITO Tours and Madurodam.

Tourism Australia, the Australian Government agency responsible for attracting international visitors to Australia for leisure and business events, this year celebrates five decades of promoting Australia in key markets across the globe. On this occasion, Tourism Australia announced the tourism programme for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, in the presence of ace shooter and former Olympic and Commonwealth Gold Medalist, Abhinav Bindra. The Games will be held in Gold Coast. To celebrate Tourism Australia’s 50-year milestone a number of key distribution partners in India have developed special the 50th Anniversary packages, offering significant value-adds to travelers. Tourism Australia Managing Director, John O’Sullivan said, “Our global consumer campaigns such as ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ – most recently brought to life with its ‘Aquatic and Coastal’ and ‘Restaurant Australia’ iterations – continue to evolve to showcase some of the very best attractions, experiences and food and wine options Australia has on offer for travellers. However, Australia’s success would not be possible without the incredible support and passion of our trade partners with whom we work with across the globe. In India, we are amplifying our marketing initiatives to reach and attract our growing target audience of prospective travellers to Australia. India is currently the 8th largest inbound market for Australia, and is expected to be within the top 5 markets by 2025, with around 500,000 Indian visitors annually. The increasing visitor numbers from India confirms that we are well placed to achieve our long-term Tourism 2020 targets for arrivals and out of region market share for India, well ahead of time.” Fanatic Sports was also present at the event which is the authorised ticket reseller for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Raghav Gupta, Founder …

Vienna recorded 64,000 Indian overnights during January-June 2017, registering a 15 per cent growth over the same period in 2016. According to figures released by Vienna Tourist Board, this growth has placed India among the high growth tourist markets for Vienna along with China, Russia and Australia. Vienna continues to attract Indian families, honeymooners and young travellers looking to explore its imperial history, soak in its rich tradition of music, and experience its romantic offerings. “City breaks to Vienna continue to boom: the city established a new record in the first half of 2017, with visitor bed nights increasing 4.2 per cent to around 6,924,000,” said Norbert Kettner, Director, Vienna Tourist Board. The Austrian capital recorded almost 7 million visitor bed nights, the highest till date for Vienna between January-June 2017 registering a 4.2 per cent growth over the same period in 2016. The Board further added that the meetings industry also played an important role, accounting for 11 per cent of the total volume of bed nights in 2016. Nearly 4,000 congresses, corporate events and incentives were held in Vienna last year, another new record for the Austrian capital.

Aiming at a steady increase in tourist arrivals from India, Israel is eyeing one lakh Indian travellers to visit the country by 2018. “We have been very focused in tourism promotions in India and easing the visa process. This year, in the first seven months till July, we have already hosted 34,000 Indian tourists. This is expected to go up to 55,000 by the end of this year,” the Israeli ministry of tourism’s India director Hassan Madah reportedly said. Currently, there are three to four direct flights from Mumbai to Tel Aviv and numerous connecting flights from West Asia. There are talks of introducing direct Air India flights connecting New Delhi with Israel in a few months, he said, adding that if it commences, tourist traffic is likely to surge from India and this year’s number may reach nearly 90,000. There are a few global airlines that are waiting for the Air India flights to be launched, and then introduce their fleets in this direct route. “When this happens, we will see a surge in tourists arrivals from India. We have also been engaging with the tourism industry in India since last few years and are focused in many promotional activities. Due to this, we have set a target of reaching one lakh tourists from India by the end of 2018,” he said. For tourism promotions in India, the Israel ministry of tourism (IMOT) is spending $5-6 million in India this year, he said, adding that going forward, as the tourist traffic grows, the budget is likely to grow. Israel, which has positioned itself as an affordable premium destination, is targeting travellers mainly for pilgrimage, leisure and meetings, incentives, conferences, …

Uzbekistan Airways recently organised an event in Mumbai to promote tourism to Uzbekistan from India. There are currently six flights to Uzbekistan, Tashkent from New Delhi. The event titled ‘Visit Uzbekistan’ was chaired by Atabek Atabaev, Country Manager of Uzbekistan Airways. Also present were Vijay. G. Kalantri, Honorary Consul General of Uzbekistan in Mumbai, Anish Arya, Passenger Sales Agency, Aero World Travels, Tolik Odilov, Managing Director, STG Travels, and Sachin Shinde, Manager-Cargo Sales, Uzbekistan.

The 15th edition of the India Travel Mission (ITM) by Tourism Australia started today in Pune. The four-day event will take place from August 16-19 at JW Marriott Pune. This year’s ITM witnessed 84 sellers including 14 new sellers and 110 buyers. Tourism Australia plans to target three lakh Indian tourist arrivals this year. India currently is at 9th position in terms of passenger arrivals and 8th in terms of market spend.

The latest data from January to May 2017 shows an increase of 20.72 per cent over the same period last year, with 183,558 Indian visits to Indonesia. India has now become the sixth largest source market with this growth displacing South Korea. Speaking about the new development, Vinsensius Jemadu, Director for Asia Pacific Tourism Promotions, Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia said, “India with the rise in aspiring middle class travellers and robust economic growth has become a potential contributor towards inbound tourism to Indonesia and Bali in particular. In Bali, the total number of India arrivals has increased over 35 per cent every year in the past six years. We are hopeful Indians will equally value Badung as their preferred destination in Indonesia.”

The Tourism Office of Spain in Mumbai has revealed that it has crossed the 100,000-mark as far as Indian arrivals were concerned in 2016. Ignacio Ducasse, Director and Tourism Counsellor, Tourism Office of Spain, Mumbai, says, “Spain registered 105,646 Indian arrivals in 2016, an increment of 17.08 per cent over the previous year. In this way, for the first time it has surpassed the number of 100,000 tourists coming from India. Our latest data indicates that their average stay was seven to eight nights which makes it a total of approximately 780,000 nights. The main destinations that Indian tourists visited continue to be Barcelona, Madrid, Andalusia, Valencia and Ibiza. However, there is some interest in new destinations such as Bilbao, Mallorca and Canary Islands.” In addition, data collected during the first half of 2017 suggests that the growth in the number of arrivals from India will be even greater during this year.

The Ministry of Tourism in Indonesia is planning to improve the tourism potential of 10 new destinations through its initiative- ‘Beyond Bali’. Under this initiative, top 10 priority destinations have been earmarked for accelerated development as ‘New Bali’ destinations. These destination include Lake Toba, Tanjung Kelayang, Tanjung Lesung, Seribu Islands, the Borobudur, Bromo-Tengger-Semeru cluster, Mandalika, Labuan Bajo, Wakatobi and Morotai, informed Saut Siringoringo, Consul General of Republic of Indonesia, Mumbai. According to official figures, during January-May 2017, as many as 183,558 Indians visited Indonesia, recording an increase of 20.72 per cent against the same period in 2016. India ranked sixth in terms of international tourist arrival in Indonesia with a growth of 28.42 per cent in 2016 over 2015. In terms of visitors to the island of Bali, India stood at fifth position in the same period with an increase in tourist inflow by 57.61 per cent. Of the 376,802 Indian tourists who visited Indonesia in 2016, Bali alone attracted 186,638 tourists. “Bali is an iconic destination in Indonesia occupying 60 per cent of tourist inflow to the country. Ministry of Tourism is determined to develop other destinations too under ‘Beyond Bali’ initiative. The results have already started to show as 12 million people visited the country in 2016. Our aim is to make it to 20 million visitors by 2019,” said Siringoringo. He informed that currently tourism stands in the fourth position in terms of contribution to the GDP of Indonesia which the destination is hoping to make the highest contributor by 2025-2030. “Countries like Malaysia are attracting one million Indians per year. We have realised the market potential of Indian tourists and improving air connectivity is our top concern,” …