Saloni Bhatia – New Delhi
Ministry of Tourism recently organised a social media workshop in New Delhi to tap marketing opportunities. The event saw the launch of five social media accounts of the ministry – Pinterest, Periscope, LinkedIn, Vimeo and Instagram – by Vinod Zutshi, secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Suman Billa, additional secretary, Ministry of Tourism. Addressing the gathering which consisted of India’s tourism partners and state tourism boards, Zutshi opined, “It is very important to evolve with the changing times and recognise the true potential of these platforms. The new generation has the tools of instant communication and we are willing to learn from them. The Ministry of Tourism is already undergoing a digital transformation in order to promote India in a big way.” Billa informed, “The Incredible India twitter handle has already gained 94,000 followers in the period of May to August and we are looking to reach out to a wider audience through these other platforms. With the human retention span reduced to merely 10 seconds, one needs to make sure the content is fresh, differentiated, engaging and shareable on regular basis. There is already varied content on social media in terms of blogs, images and videos shared by people that can be used. I would also request all the state tourism boards and associations to collectively work in promoting India as a destination.”
There were also presentations by Saransh Kharbanda, analytical head, Google and Taranjeet Singh, business head, Twitter on the use of social marketing tools in promoting travel businesses. India has the largest base of internet with 350 million users and Google has the potential of reaching out to 96 per cent of users connected through mails, photos and YouTube across devices. “85 percent of business travellers use social media to do booking and 61 per cent of users follow travel brands. As a user friendly platform, Twitter entails huge potential to promote travel in India,” commented Singh.