Brand USA targets 2.8 million Indian tourists by 2021

Brand USA, the destination marketing organisation for the US, is attempting to drive enough Indian visits to meet its stated goal of 2.8 million tourists by 2021.

"Visitation to US, when it comes to Indians, has been great. We have had an increase of 17 per cent in 2015. The aim is to reach a milestone of 2.8 million visitors from India by 2021," Cathy Domanico, Vice President, Global Trade Development, Brand USA, told IANS on Friday.

Brand USA was established in 2010 by the Travel Promotion Act as the nation's first public-private partnership to promote the country as a premier travel destination.

The organisation's mission is to increase international visits to the US in order to fuel the economy and enhance the image of the US worldwide.

"Our goal is to really educate the trade and the destinations. The objective is to bring people beyond the gateways as they don't see much if they come through the gateways," Domanico said during the fifth annual "Brand USA India Mission" organised here to provide an opportunity to the US suppliers to engage with key decision makers through free flow one-on-one appointments.

"We have plans in work to accomplish our goal as there are a lot of prospects in tourism from India to the United States," she added.

More than 258 million visitors travelled to California in 2015 from every corner of the world, 291,000 of them from India. Indian travellers stayed an average 19 days on their trip, spending $1,785 each, making them a valuable target for California tourism businesses, according to the Brand USA.

"India is a very big country which has its population in billions. We want to focus on the luxury market and education travels. We will continue to work on the millennial market as India has more number of people under the age of 35 than most of the countries," said Domanico.

--IANS

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