Looking to boost Indian visitors to Catalonia, the Catalonia Tourism Board and the Government of Catalonia will soon announce direct connectivity between India and Spain. Commenting on the same, Suprio Bose, trade commissioner, Government of Catalonia, elaborated on the official manifest in accordance to the Catalonia President’s visit to India in November 2013 resulting in a tripartite city charter. “The official announcement is still pending, however, the route will be from Madrid-Barcelona to India. Air India would be serving from Delhi while Jet Airways will be connecting Mumbai with the other two cities.” he said. Bose is hopeful about the plans to be implemented by the end of 2015 and stated that there has been an increase of more than 40 per cent in seat capacities essentially by carriers like Qatar Airways and Emirates, through Middle East to Barcelona and Madrid.
The Catalonia Tourism Board will also be working closely with the Network of MICE Agents (NIMA) wherein they will be introducing new and innovative activities as well as venues to MICE groups and promoting Catalonia as a mono destination. According to David Miro, director Asia-Pacific, Catalan Tourist Board, Government of Catalonia, “We have been focusing on the Indian market since 2012 and we plan to reach one lakh Indian visitors by the end of 2015, initially the traffic was about 50,000 tourists.”
Miro also informed about a digital online guide, an online training programme to be launched by the Catalonia Tourism Board for the Indian travel trade in March 2015, targeting more than 11, 000 travel agents in India. He also said that the tourism board will invite MICE agents from India for ‘Buy Catalonia’, an international B2B workshop, which will take place in mid-June 2015 in Barcelona. He also talked about undertaking various promotional strategies to encourage tourism in Catalonia beyond Barcelona.
Gajesh Girdhar, patron, founder and national coordinator, NIMA, and Rakesh Arora, coordinator, membership and registrations, NIMA, talked about holding their first conference in Catalonia in 2016 while highlighting their presence in 13 states in India with over 50 members within six months.