India launches campaign to attract foreign tourists

In an effort to reverse the decline in international tourist arrivals in the country after Mumbai terror attacks, India has launched a new tourism promotion campaign to woo foreign visitors.

The new campaign ‘Visit India Year 2009’ has been launched at the current International Tourism Exchange in Berlin to present the country as an attractive destination for the holidaymakers.

The campaign is a joint initiative by the government and the tourism industry to win back international visitors who have stayed away since the terror attacks in Mumbai last November, said Secretary for Tourism Sujit Banerjee, who launched the campaign at a conference of international media and travel trade representatives.

India’s tourism industry has to cope with global terrorism and global economic downturn, which are threatening to put a break this year on a decade of phenomenal growth in international arrivals, driven by the successful ‘Incredible India’ marketing campaign and steady improvements in the tourism infrastructure, Banerjee said.

International tourist arrivals in India continued to grow last year even after the financial crisis began to unfold in some major tourism markets such as the United States and Britain, but the Mumbai attacks dealt a severe blow to foreign tourist travelling to the country, he said. International arrivals have been falling since November and this trend gained momentum this year, Banerjee said.

“Therefore, the government has joined hands with leading airlines, hoteliers, holiday resorts and tour operators in this ambitious marketing campaign to bring back foreign tourists by offering them a wide range of incentives and bonuses during the period between April and December, 2009.”

According to the estimates of the India Tourism Office, international tourist arrivals in India slumped to around 5.6 per cent in 2008 to 5.37 million visitors after averaging 10 per cent up to September. Their number dropped to more than 17 per cent in January, 2009.

The decline in international tourist arrivals comes after India achieved a 14.3 per cent growth with arrival of 5.08 million tourists in 2007. A similar growth was registered in 2006 when over 4.45 million foreigners visited the country.

Between 2003 and 2007, the number of international arrivals in India went up from 3.09 million to 5.37 million.

The airlines participating in the campaign, Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines will offer a “companion free ticket” for every ticket purchased for international and domestic flights. Connecting flights to the departing airports are included in the final travel costs.

The Indian Travel Agents’ Association (IATO) offers holiday-makers a free sightseeing tour in a city of their choice.