Catching up briskly after late start

This advertisement on television of Hampi TV Commercial (TVC) under the ‘New Worlds’ campaign stood out.. Someone on Karnataka Tourism's Facebook page commented: "The next thing you want to do after watching this TVC is pack up your bags and leave (for the state)."

Karnataka has lately recognised tourism as an important part of its economy. All states have woken up to what tourism can do, be it in terms of jobs, investments, revenue or overall goodwill. Karnataka tried to emulate Kerala but never sustained the momentum. “If they had gone the Kerala way in sustainability and focus, this would have become a leading destination because of the variety on offer,” said an expert involved with the branding for Karnataka Tourism.

 

“We've got most of it right -- targeting the youth and adding adventure to the journey. But the relevant insight which drove the TVC specifically was this: heritage, by itself, can sound boring to many Indians,” said Sharat Kuttikat, creative director, Stark Communications, the advertising and marketing company involved with the promotion.

What the ‘New Worlds’ campaign has managed over the past year is a 23 per cent recorded growth in rooms/tours. Tourists in the 30-50 group make up 58 per cent of arrivals. The main markets from where arrivals were seen included Mumbai/Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Gujarat, Bengal, Hyderabad (the campaign focused on these regions). The most popular destinations among the domestic crowd was Hampi and Mysore (31 per cent each), followed by Kodagu-Chikmagalur and places like Badami.

The state had seen tourist arrivals of 24 million in 2002. Today, the number has reached 86 mn. In 2010, the total number of visitors was 38 mn and the year before, it was 32.9 mn. Foreign tourist arrivals are now around 570,000 officially. But, said a travel analyst, “it may have crossed 700,000 mark for sure, given the record growth”. While Kerala took years to achieve acceptance from world trade, Karnataka took less than half the time, owing to its destinations, led by Hampi. TUI of Germany, Thika of Netherlands, VDM of France, UK's A&K, and a host of others, numbering about 30 of the world's leading tour operators, have Karnataka's products in their itineraries.