Around 199,000 Indians visited the Golden State of California in 2011, which is a jump of 8 per cent in comparison to the previous year. Indians are among the top 10 international visitors to California in the year 2011, excluding Canada and Mexico. Overall, 6.2 million overseas travellers visited California in 2011, a 22.3 per cent share of all overseas travel to the US. Overseas visitors spent approximately US$12.6 billion in the state. “The new national goal is to welcome 100 million visitors per year by the year 2021. Visa reforms are a key step, but we also need to interact with visitors and attract them to California through social media, marketing, like California’s ‘Summer of Fun’ campaign, and using qualitative research to determine how visitors make travel decisions. We are providing content on Google Currents, Google+, Digg, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other platforms to build on our state’s global brands,” said Caroline Beteta, president and CEO, Visit California.
