Electronic travel authorisation & tourism infoline to boost inbound tourism
ETW Staff– Mumbai
Travelling to India will be made easy once the electronic travel authorisation to visit India and tourism infoline in 12 languages becomes operational in about a year. This was disclosed by Parvez Dewan, secretary tourism, Government of India, while inaugurating the first edition of the Incredible India Travel Bazaar (IITB), organised by FICCI in partnership of the Union Ministry of Tourism.
IITB, retains the exclusive focus on inbound travel, as its previous avatar, the Great Indian Travel Bazaar (GITB). This year’s mega event has drawn 247 foreign tour operators. They will engage in Business-to-Business (B2B) meetings with 246 Indian sellers in 9000 structured pre-fixed meetings over two days.
Dewan said, “During the past year India had considerably relaxed its visa regime and expanded the Visa-on-Arrival (VoA) scheme. As a facilitative measure to attract more foreign tourists to India, the government launched the VoA scheme in January 2010 for citizens of five countries, viz. Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore, visiting India for tourism purposes. The scheme was extended to the citizens of six more countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos and Myanmar in January 2011. During the next 12 months, many of the travel facilitating decisions taken by the government will be implemented.”
He exhorted the foreign tour operators to stay back in India after the Travel Bazaar concludes to experience first-hand, the diversity and the uniqueness of Indian tourism products. “India is no longer a November to March destination; it is a round-the-year experience, its summer destinations are incredible, it is home to 73 per cent of the Himalayas and its modern hospitals provide second-to-none treatment at a tenth of the cost in USA,” Dewan said.
On the occasion, a Knowledge Paper by FICCI and Roots Research on ‘India Inbound –The Kaleidoscopic Canvas’ was released. The knowledge paper highlights 10 key areas for policy intervention to promote foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs). These are:
Promotion of India as a destination: India as a nation to be promoted in the international market. We have seen the spurt in inbound tourism after the launch of campaign ‘Incredible India’. It was a deviation from the earlier efforts by the states to individually promote them in foreign countries.
Community support: For any tourist destination to become significant it is very important that it gets the support of the local community. The Ministry of Tourism, India has supported such ad campaigns which disseminates the idea of sensitising the general public as in how tourism is important for the growth of their area socially and economically. Such campaigns should be increased.
Secure and safe environment: To make country safe and secure for the foreigners the government is working on various measures. Lot of initiatives have been taken like educating and sensitising the community, beefing up security at tourist spots, increasing security personnel at the city/district level of the tourist destinations.
Upgradation of skills: In any service rendering process like tourism it is very essential that the people involved are trained so that the foreign tourists who visit our country carry a very positive impression about our hospitality. Unfortunately, the employability quotient of the manpower in India is not up to the mark. Investing into development of training schools and institutions will really help the states to channelise its manpower resources. Many tourist destinations lack well-qualified guides. These training schools will also increase the employability quotient of the manpower in the respective states and also make tourist destinations more tourists friendly and supportive.
Know your customer: ‘Know your customer’ is an important concept. A marketer can define and customise products, attract right kind and number of people, etc through understanding its customers and developing its offerings to increase popularity. The data that is available of foreign tourist arrivals in various states can be analysed and inferences that are gathered can form a very important source of marketing initiatives.
Up selling and cross selling: It is important to club tourism products offered by various states so that the tourists elongate their stay and visitors can be converted into tourists. For instance, business travellers from other countries who come to India can be made to stay after their official work is done for the purpose of leisure, heritage or any other form of tourism.
Technology as an enabler: Technology is redefining the way we exist in this world and it has been proved beyond doubt that the use of technology has really improved wherever it was used in conjunction with tourism.
Treating tourism as market offer: We have seen increased budget allocated to state tourism boards for marketing and promotion, more aggressive advertising campaigns, more fairs and festivals, etc, nevertheless, we still feel there is need for more. There is a need to market lesser-known destinations so that the tourist’s arrival figures are not very skewed.
New policy initiatives: Many state governments have signed MoUs with other states to promote domestic tourism. These understandings include tax benefits, rebates, low cost of travelling, etc. And such agreements have paid well. It is proposed that such measures should be scaled up at the state level to attract tourist from neighboring states.
Infrastructure upgradation: Infrastructure development is the key to improve the destinations in terms of connectivity and other facilities that are very important for the tourists. Centre and State Governments taking all measures in developing and commissioning the infrastructure. Oceanariums, budgeted accommodation, circuit routes, roads and highways, etc are being planned and developed. Infrastructure development is vital for this industry and there is need to invest more in the same.
