Saloni Bhatia – New Delhi
Destination Canada has recorded an increase of 10.2 per cent Indian tourist arrivals from January to August, 2016, in comparison to the same period last year. The country expects further growth with the launch of new daily flights to Vancouver and Toronto by Air Canada. On his recent trip to India, Ruper Peters, regional managing director, Europe, Australia and India, Destination Canada informed, “There has been consistent growth in the India market. The month of August alone witnessed an increase of 17.7 per cent of tourist arrivals as compared to last year with 10.2 per cent overall growth in 2016. India ranks seventh on the tourist arrivals chart and is an attractive market for Canada. We plan to exceed 200,000 Indian visitors and account to double digit growth next year.”
Speaking to Express TravelWorld about the introduction of the new Vancouver flight, he mentioned, “The Vancouver flight will open many new destinations in the west and north coast as people will now be able to explore more. There are many new products like sea plane rides, ski resorts, polar bear sightings, Northern Lights viewing among many others. These destination will be more accessible to tourists due to the direct flight. As a destination it will offer various kinds of soft adventure activities for travellers.”
When asked about the trending MICE travel around the world, he remarked, “Though MICE is an important aspect of travel, presently we are not actively promoting it. Since majority of people travelling to Canada are students and their families, we will be focusing on the pure holiday segment and attracting the high end leisure travellers.”
The Experience Canada event witnessed participation of around 3500 travel agents. The cab promotions will run through next month and Destination Canada will soon be launching a campaign with the lifestyle brand Aldo over their 36 stores in India. Alongside, it will also run radio and social media ads.
“An Indian’s average stay is around two weeks and spend varies from 1,400 to 1,550 CAD, which excludes airfare, food and shopping. While our major traffic comes from Delhi and Mumbai, we plan to extend our reach to Tier II and Tier III cities soon,” added Peters.