Archana Sharma – New Delhi
Amsterdam is once again looking at targeting Indian tourists and will be organising trade shows in the near future. Elaborating on the same, Frans Van der Avert, CEO, Amsterdam Marketing, spoke about the importance of India as a major source market with the destination receiving over 10,000 Indian tourists in 2014. “To promote Amsterdam better, we will also be organising trade shows in Delhi and Mumbai in the coming year and will engage in other promotional activities to gradually build up the India market,” he stated at a recent event organised by the Embassy of Kingdom of Netherlands, Amsterdam Marketing, KLM Royal Dutch airlines and the Municipality of Amsterdam in New Delhi.
While highlighting the various aspects of Amsterdam tourism, MM van’t Veld, MA, Mayor, City of Amstelveen, stated, “We want to encourage Indian travellers to visit Amsterdam and hope that they explore the various sites, museums, orchestra etc in our beautiful city, as it is already home to various Indian companies.” She also said that even though they are currently targeting Delhi, they will also be looking at other metro cities as well and hope to host at least double the current tourism figures from India.
Talking about flight connectivity, Hicham L Bennani, commercial director, South Asia, Air France – KLM, stated, “KLM offers 14 weekly flights from India including a daily flight each from New Delhi and Mumbai.”
Meanwhile, in an effort to strengthen ties between the two nations, Netherlands Cobra Museum has collaborated with India’s Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai. Located in Amstelveen, Cobra Museum was founded by artists from Copenhagen, Bruxelles and Amsterdam in 1948. This museum is a link between modern art and contemporary art and is the only museum to have a diverse collection of Cobra art movement. Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum located in Mumbai was opened in 1872, which showcases the city’s cultural heritage and history through its rare collection and fine arts.
Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, managing trustee and director, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum said, “We are extremely happy to partner with the Cobra Museum. This is the beginning of exchange of culture between Amsterdam, Amstelveen and Mumbai. This partnership will see exchange of exhibitions, workshops and education programmes for the youth across both the countries.”