Tag Archives: tourism

A total of 13 Indian buyers including top travel companies from across India, Tourism Australia and Malaysia Airlines, marked their participation at ‘Queensland on Stage India 2018’ at Top Golf, Gold Coast held on November 20. Around 17 Queensland sellers exhibited their offerings at the event. Speaking on the occasion, Ryna Sequeira, Country Manager of Tourism and Events Queensland in India said, “Queensland witnessed a 17 per cent growth in June 2018 and welcomed around 78,000 Indian visitors. We have seen a strong year-on-year growth out of the market. We thank all the Indian buyers for their consistent business to Queensland and the sellers who believe and invest in the market.” The event provided participating operators the opportunity to meet with Indian agents to enable them to expand their product knowledge; look for new and exciting experiences and products; and to build on existing relationships.

The direct contribution of travel and tourism sector — which reflects the net value of output generated by hotels, airlines, travel agents, other passenger transportation services (excluding commuter services), and restaurants and leisure industries directly supported by tourists — was expected to rise 6.9 per cent YoY in 2017, suggests a FICCI-KPMG report. This accounts for 3.3 per cent of the country’s GDP, and is expected to form 3.5 per cent of it by 2027. In accordance with its GDP contribution, the sector contributes significantly to job creation. The sector directly accounts for 5.8 per cent of the total employment in India. Further, the Indian travel and tourism sector is expected to have attracted capital investment of Rs 2,387.7 billion (USD35.2 billion) in 2017 — accounting for 5.7 per cent of the total national investment.

The India pavilion at World Travel Market 2018 in London was packed with activities for the trade and consumers alike. Addressing a press conference, Rashmi Verma, Secretary-Tourism, Government of India, enlisted the achievements of the Ministry. Accompanying Verma were Pramod Kumar Singh, Tourism Minister, Bihar; Vellamandi N Natarajan, Tourism Minister, Tamil Nadu; Aashima Mehrotra, Director, Ministry of Tourism and Charanjeet Singh, Deputy High Commissioner of India to the UK. Verma highlighted, “Last year has been a very good year for India tourism with a growth of about 14 per cent in foreign tourist arrivals and about 19 per cent in terms of foreign receipts, much more than the global growth of 6.8 per cent. We also crossed the 10 million mark for the first time. This was possible because of our adoption of the multi-pronged strategy. We focus hugely on creating world-class infrastructure in and around our tourist sites.” She pointed out, “Incredible India 2.0 campaign is more thematic in nature. Looking at the needs and demands of major markets like the US and the UK, we have made some thematic films on niche products like adventure, yoga, Ayurveda, etc. This campaign focuses heavily on social media besides print and electronic media. We are hopeful that through this new Incredible India campaign we will be able to encourage people to revisit india, stay longer and experience the various products we have on offer.” The MOT also recently concluded two new events — India Tourism Mart (ITM) and Paryatan Parv —to create awareness about India both internationally and domestically. “More than 250 foreign buyers participated at the first-ever ITM. Buddhist Conclave was also held to showcase various Buddhist destinations in India.” The key initiative of introduction …

Goa Tourism has been contributing immensely to the digital transformation of the country’s travel sector. Goa Tourism through Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) recently launched Goa Miles, an app-based taxi service to streamline the entire tourist transportation process within the state. GTDC has also launched an e-commerce portal and a mobile application to provide tourists a digital experience of Goa. Visitors can browse through various options ranging from holiday packages, hotel bookings to adventure trips, spice gardens and water parks, among others. Speaking on the occasion of World Tourism Day, Goa Minister for Tourism Manohar Ajgaonkar said, “At a time when tourism boards are competing hard, Goa Tourism has gone ahead to increase its reach to the world and the results are visible. From digitalising our internal processes to our tourism services, Goa Tourism has come a long way in this digital transformation. I wish our tourism partners, stakeholders and each and every visitor to Goa a pleasant experience with Goa Tourism.” Goa Tourism recently launched an aggressive social media campaign ‘Tourism by Tourists’ to promote Goa as a ‘must-visit’ destination. To achieve this, Goa Tourism partnered with over 500 amateur photographers (through crowd-sourced Instagram activity: #PickMyGoaPic), more than 100 bloggers and 30 YouTube content creators to harness their content while touring Goa. The content shared by them was amalgamated into a video promoting Goa as a ‘must-visit’ destination. The campaign bagged a Gold at the National Tourism Awards by the Tourism Ministry for ‘Best use of Social Media in promotion of a Tourism Board’ in 2017.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated two Swadesh Darshan Scheme projects of the Ministry of Tourism – ‘Development of Kakinada – Hope Island – Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary – Passarlapudi – Aduru – S Yanam – Kotipally and, Development of Nellore- Pulikat Lake – Ubblamadugu Water Falls – Nelapattu -Kothakoduru- Mypadu – Ramateertham – Iskapalli’ in the presence of Union Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism K J Alphons, Andhra Pradesh Tourism Minister Bhuma Akhila Priya and Union Tourism Secretary Rashmi Verma in Tirupati. The projects are the first projects under the Swadesh Drashan Scheme to be inaugurated in the Southern region. Naidu also inaugurated the state-of-the-art Indian Culinary Institute (ICI) campus, Tirupati. Alphons said that the tourism ministry is one among the major contributors to employment generation in the country and this culinary institute will help in imparting skills to more youth, thereby further generating employment. The project Development of Kakinada – Hope Island – Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary – Passarlapudi – Aduru – S Yanam – Kotipally was sanctioned by the Ministry of Tourism in March 2015 for Rs 69.83 crore. The second project was sanctioned in December 2015 for Rs 59.70 Crores. Nellore has huge potential to be developed as a leading tourist destination in the region because of its proximity to Chennai, Bangalore and Tirupati and also due to its abundant natural resources.    

The FHRAI Annual Convention is underway at Ramada Lucknow Hotel & Convention Centre on the theme ‘Spiritual and Wellness Tourism’. The Chief Guest of the event was Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh. Guests of Honour include Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Minister, Tourism, Govt of UP and Ashok Chandra Panda, Minister, Tourism, Govt of Odisha. ‘Look Within India’ has been incorporated as the tagline in the convention logo. It translates the thought of looking within the land of the world’s spiritual and wellness capital, India. The exhibition will feature the latest products and technologies in hospitality. Also, an expo to highlight ‘one district one product’ of Uttar Pradesh will be a special focus of the event.

President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the International Buddhist Conclave (IBC), 2018 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi  in the presence of KJ Alphons, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism; Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Tourism; Satyajit Rajan, Director General, Tourism; ministerial delegates from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Travel trade representatives from India and various other countries were also present for the conclave. Addressing the audience, Kovind said, “India is the land of Buddha and this initiative by Ministry of Tourism would attract visitors from around the world to come to India and experience the Buddhist destinations in the country.” The first day of the conclave also included presentations by the Ministry of Tourism and state governments on Buddhist tourism prospects in the country. An investor’s summit was also going on alongside the conclave to look for investment opportunities in the Buddhist tourism sector in the country. A B2B session was also conducted between foreign and Indian tour operators along with a panel discussion on ‘Role of Living Buddhist Heritage in the Contemporary Society’. The Conclave is being organised by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the state governments of Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh from August 23-26, 2018 at New Delhi and Ajanta (Maharashtra).

In a bid to attract more foreign tourists, the Ministry of Tourism will take a slew of measures to promote the upcoming Kumbh Mela globally. The 49-day-long fair is scheduled to begin in Allahabad on January 2019. In a written reply in Lok Sabha, KJ Alphons, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism said, “The Ministry will launch ‘Chalo Kumbh Chalo’ campaign across the country and other marketing campaigns to promote the fair. We are organising the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ in Varanasi to attract ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Delegates’ to visit the holy congregation.” “We will lay out advertisements promoting Kumbh 2019 at major international airports of the country to attract foreign tourists. We will also develop designated area for flag hoisting for 192 countries visiting Kumbh Mela,” Alphons added.

The Indian hotel market is projected to grow to around USD 13 bn by 2020, according to FICCI-Yes Bank Knowledge Paper titled ‘Tourism Infrastructure Investments: Leveraging Partnerships for Exponential Growth’. Further, as per World Travel & Tourism Council’s 2018 report, the industry contribution to capital investment in India was Rs 2706.1 bn in 2017 and is projected to grow 6.7 per cent per annum in next 10 years to Rs 5546.3 bn by 2028, higher than the global average of 4.5 per cent. Despite increase in private sector investment, the Indian hotel industry observed a decline in average room rate and room occupancy in 2016-17 which is largely attributed to lower participation of hotels in the five-star deluxe and five-star categories in India.

KJ Alphons, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism, Government of India, has launched the Indian Adventure Tourism Guidelines along with Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Tourism; Satyajeet Rajan, Director General, Tourism; Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Tourism and Swadesh Kumar, President, Adventure Tourism Association of India (ATOAI). A total of 26 activities have been covered in the guidelines including land, air and water based activities. The guidelines have been put in place to make the unorganised sector to adopt them. These guidelines will be reviewed every three months. In an effort to make adventure sports safer, the set of guidelines lists out the basic minimum standards required for adventure tourism activities in India. Adventure tourism has grown rapidly over the past few years playing a vital role in the economic growth of India as well as attracting a large number of travellers from across the globe to the country. The sole aim is to help adventure tour operators understand and execute safety guidelines in a better manner. These guidelines cover activities like mountaineering, trekking, bungee jumping, paragliding, kayaking, scuba diving, snorkelling, river rafting and many other sports.