Charting A Futuristic Growth Strategy

After kicking off the 'Incredible India' campaign in 2003, Amitabh Kant, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism details the second phase of the campaign that is set to roll out in the near future.

The Incredible !ndia campaign has helped the country emerge as a forerunner in the global tourism scenario. India started appearing on the who's who of some of the most reputed tourism destination lists. The tourist arrival barometer in the country has kept soaring in 2004 and the campaign generated rave responses world over.

"The year 2004 had its share of heady surprises. The number of tourist arrivals in India saw a quantum leap with tourism being one of the main revenue generators for the country. Last year, the Incredible India campaign led to a growth of 25 per cent in volume and 36 per cent in value enabling us to penetrate newer markets. Now, the campaign will move away from being generic to becoming a highly specialised campaign branding India in different niche areas. The campaign will concentrate on areas like medical tourism, golfing, agro-farming, etc. It is time to tap the NRIs in UK and the US who represent about 32 per cent of the medical fraternity," divulges Kant.

Quoted as being refreshing with a vibrant theme 'Colours of India', the new campaign has a different focus than the previous one. This campaign is all about the rich and varied cultural heritage and diversity of India. It will showcase different cultures, cuisine, festivals, the people, and even the country's seasons.

Having taken a cue from the success of the first phase, where it played around with concepts such as ayurveda, spas and spirituality, this phase will also use the niche technique. It will include a judicious mix of niche marketing promotions including beaches and adventure tourism that will be packaged and branded in a new way.

"We have never looked at promoting Indian states individually. We have always promoted India as a whole by focussing on themes, spirituality and India as a journey of mind and soul. During this second phase, our objective is to achieve 40-45 per cent growth in foreign exchange earnings and 50 per cent growth in value this year," explains Kant. Last year, the foreign exchange earnings figures touched US$ 4.9 billion mark. Kant is optimistic about India increasing this figure to US$ 10 billion in a period of three years.

Besides taking the campaign forward, the ministry is also looking at promoting Monsoon tourism in a big way to give the tourism sector an added fillip. "Monsoon tourism should be looked at as a product that requires niche marketing. Our focus will be on opening up new areas and looking at promoting the tourism period between April to October. This would in turn open up a whole new segment like plantation holidays, tea estates, etc.," he states.

Moreover, the Ministry of Tourism (MoT) is focussing on rural tourism to provide a new experience to foreign as well as domestic tourists. "As part of this initiative, India Tourism is implementing a project in 55 selected villages across the country to sell their heritage, culture and art forms. These villages would be provided with Rs 50 lakh each under UNDP assistance to improve infrastructure like building open-air theatres, interpretation centres, shop outlets etc. Besides, an additional amount of Rs 20 lakh would be provided for developing logistic facilities and starting community participation centres through self-help groups," says Kant.

As part of various initiatives being taken, MoT and the Ministry of Shipping are presently coordinating with the cruise companies in order to establish cruising as a high value product. Kant reveals that the MoT had written to all the cruise companies, exhorting them to help the ministry develop the segment by putting Indian ports on their itineraries. The MoT was also seeking feedback from the cruise companies. "Though we believe that the cruise segment holds a lot of potential, right now it is difficult to quantify the business that can be generated. The segment will invariably attract high yield business albeit in lower volumes. Yet there is every possibility of earning good revenue," says Kant.

The challenge now is to make India a 365-day destination. The niche packages will help this cause, Kant hopes. He believes that in order to make India a tourist destination of international standard, each department involved needs to play its role effectively and in concurrence with the macro plans. "While the MoT works towards marketing and promoting the country and the respective states, it marvelous is also imperative to control basic tourism growth roadblocks such as infrastructure, rationality and uniformity of taxes and quality manpower. Non-availability of hotel rooms would be a major concern for the sector in the years to come. The major bottleneck is in the metros and the State Government can play a major role in making land availability easier in metro cities," he mentions.

The ministry is focussing on infrastructure in partnership with the states and private sector. In this direction, it is planning to cut down the number of projects sanctioned earlier and will identify only 16 major destinations that can make a substantial impact on tourists thereby providing him with a holistic experience right from his point of arrival till the time of his departure.

MoT is actively involved in the task of repairing the image of Andaman islands in order to promote it as an exclusive high-end eco-tourism destination and partly in a bid to rebuild the islands' economy after last year's tsunami. "What we have got to do is ensure people start going back. We plan to produce brochures and CDs to market the islands," Kant explains. In order to prevent the islands from being over-run, he wants to limit the numbers to 5,000 to 6,000 foreign tourists a month. "Overall there is a tremendous amount of activity going on to push Indian tourism to the top. Once all this ground rules are in place, only then will the country reap a rich tourism harvest," he says.