Rituparna Chatterjee – Mumbai
Britain has recorded an increase in spend from Indians travelling to the destination. In 2014, Britain welcomed 390,000 Indians, recording a spend of 444 million pounds. This year, VisitBritain hopes to carry this level of growth forward. Speaking on the sidelines of the GREAT Tourism Week 2015 held in Mumbai, Shivali Suri, country manager – India, VisitBritain, stated, “Since 2012 we have seen a year-on-year growth. 2013 recorded a 10 per cent growth in terms of arrivals and 32 per cent growth in terms of spend over 2012. 2014 witnessed another additional four per cent in arrivals, so in total we had a 14-15 per cent growth since 2012, while a 33-34 per cent jump on spend. We are hoping to carry this level of growth forward.” The reasons for this growth has been the increase in business and leisure travellers. “VFR is increasing, but it is a smaller increase as compared to the other two segments. In India traditionally, business travellers tend to bring in their families and convert their business trips into leisure ones. This is probably why we have seen an increase in the spend and we hope to continue this trend in 2015-2016 as well,” opined Suri. India is the number one BRIC market for arrivals into the UK. Its other source markets include the US, Germany, France, Australia, GCC, among others.
VisitBritain is also launching two campaigns this year to promote its popular and lesser-known destinations. “We had the Bollywood Britain campaign last year and this year too we will be having it. More than 50 top grossing Bollywood blockbusters have been shot in the UK. This month-long campaign is expected to start in October wherein we will showcase newer countryside locations like Yorkshire, Leeds, Kent, Lake District, etc. Last year we signed up with Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, and this year we will be tying up with specific opportunities that we have explored in the market,” mentioned Suri without divulging further details. An investment of over 500,000 pounds has been made over the past two years for the campaigns. VisitBritain will also be launching a ‘Bond Is Great’ global campaign to promote locations where the latest Bond film, releasing this November, has been shot.