INDIA 08 ASIA 14 OCEANIA 17 EUROPE 18 AMERICAS 22 ... · 15,000 plus trade visitors lift OTM to a...

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` 50 / us $5 16-31 March 2013Volume II l Issue 9 Pages 32 www.travelnewsdigest.in

INDIA 08 OCEANIA 17ASIA 14 EUROPE 18 AMERICAS 22 CARIBBEAN 26 AFRICA 28 EVENTS 30

This year OTM Mumbai received 9,853 trade vis-

itors and Delhi welcomed 6,306. In addition, over 2,500 general visitors attended each show.

Some 1,200 exhibitors from 30 countries and all over India took part in OTM Mumbai and Delhi combined.

This reinforced OTM’s reputation as the top B2B focused travel tradeshow in India, in terms of size, number of participants and trade visitors.

The first two days of both events were dedicated to the travel trade fraternity and drew a hugely positive

response. The last days of the fairs were open to all and drew large numbers of travel trade and travellers alike.

The largest international participation came from Sri Lanka, Turkey, China and Thailand – the Part-ner Countries, with a large presence also from Canada,

Philippines, Maldives, Egypt, Macau, Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh and Russia – the Feature Countries.

The response from partic-ipants at the OTM has been overwhelmingly positive. First-timers and veterans praised the organisers of the

15,000 plus trade visitors lift OTM to a record high

“OTM’s presence in Mumbai and Delhi is a very important thing for the outbound industry. OTM brings not only previous participants, but also something new every year. OTM bringing these new participants to India actually gives a

lot of leverage to outbound tour operators.”

Guldeep singh sahni President

OTOAI (Outbound Tour Operators Association of India)

“I appreciate OTM which is growing in leaps and bounds, and adding value to the participating tourism boards. I am very happy so many tourism boards are taking part here at OTM; it will not

only help tourism, but also help develop bilateral relations.”

Iqbal Mulla President

TAAI (Travel Agents Association of India)

“The role played by OTM is very important in guiding outbound travellers. I congratulate the organisers for putting up such a wonderful

show. OTM is a great opportunity to increase our knowledge and knowledge is power.”

subhash Goyal President

IATO (Indian Association of Tour Operators)

OTM 2013 concluded with a record number of visitors attending both the shows at Mumbai and Delhi, lifting India’s biggest B2B travel trade show to a new high and reinforcing OTM’s reputation as the top B2B focused travel tradeshow in India, in terms of size, number of participants and trade visitors.

Event Alert

Block Your Dates

ITB Berlin provides significant impetus for growth

2013Kolkata: July 5, 6, 7Hyderabad: July 12, 13, 14Ahmedabad: August 16, 17, 18Surat: August 23, 24, 25Mumbai: August 30, 31, September 1Pune: September 6, 7, 8

2014Bangalore: January 3, 4, 5Chennai: January 10, 11, 12

2014Mumbar: February 7, 8, 9New Delhi: February 14, 15, 16

Contd. on page 2...

ITB Berlin 2013 was undoubtedly the world’s largest meeting place of inter-national tourism policy decision-mak-ers and business leaders.

India's Biggest Travel Trade Show

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | maRcH 2013 2

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COVER STORY

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event and were optimistic about the business opportunities and future for the indus-try that the show represented.

“It’s a great event, because not only can you promote inbound travel, but outbound travel as well,” said Prasad Kariyawasam, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India.

Jaime Nualart, Ambassador of Mexico in India, said, “I would like to congratulate the organisers, because it takes enormous effort to promote outbound tourism from India and OTM is the right platform for it.”

Mahbub Hassan Saleh, Acting High Commissioner of Bangladesh in India, said, “Bangladesh Tourism Board is participating in OTM with six tour operators. We also participated in TTF organised by Fairfest in other cities, like Kolkata, which is next door to us.”

“I appreciate the organisers of OTM for helping us to reach out to our target mar-ket. Thank you OTM,” said Benito B Valeriano, Ambassador of Philippines in India.

“Last year, Russia was present here and we were very pleased. This year the dele-gation is double,” Aleksey M Mzareulov, Deputy Consul General of Consulate Gen-eral of the Russian Federation in Mumbai told Travel News Digest. “Not only are the tourism agencies participating, but regional governments are also joining us to pro-mote their destinations. Krasnodar Regional Government has come all the way to participate in OTM.

“We doubled the number of inbound tourists to Russia last year thanks to OTM and we look forward to more business in 2013. Gujarat state has a special partnership with Krasnodar region and we are also in talks with Goa to establish a similar partnership.”

Sarvar Kamilov, Consul, Embassy of The Republic of Uzbekistan, said, “This is the second time we are participating in OTM. Participation in OTM helps Uzbekistan tour-ism hugely. This is a great fair. I want to thank OTM and those who support OTM.”

International participants included Thailand, Canada, Philippines, Egypt, Macau,

Bhutan, Dubai, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Switzerland, Tanzania, USA and many more, with first-ever participation from Bahrain, Western Austra-lia and Zambia.

Okinawa, a prefecture in the southernmost part of Japan, was this year’s Focus Destination. “We wanted to present Okinawa as a new destination for Indian tour-ists, so we came to OTM. During the last two days, we met many travel agencies from India and we are confident we have built some very good contacts from OTM,” said Rui Kinjo, Coordinator, Overseas Marketing Section, Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau.

An interactive presentation on U.S. visa procedures was made by Monica Shie and Satya Prakash from the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy, New Delhi. “OTM is a wonderful opportunity for us,” said Shie. “We do these kinds of infor-mation-sharing sessions all the time, but here at OTM, we could reach a larger audience. We are really glad OTM gave us the slot.”

Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat and Odi-sha – the OTM Partner States–led participation in the domestic segment. Karna-taka, Rajasthan and Punjab also participated enthusiastically as Feature States. Maharashtra Tourism, the Host State in Mumbai had a large pavilion, as did the states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Daman & Diu, Goa, Haryana, Jharkhand, Mad-hya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Puducherry, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Delhi Tourism played the role of gracious host for OTM Delhi.

OTM is supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, as well as travel industry bodies, including Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Asso-ciation of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI), Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) and Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO).

Travel News Digest and TravTalk– two leading travel trade publica-tions of India were the Official Trade Publications and Bloomberg TV was the Official TV Partner.

“OTM is doing a very good job for the tourism industry. It is worth the money to join OTM. Here we get more

and more partners, every year it is getting bigger and better. This is the venue to see your partners, build

relationships, and more than anything, it is trust that we get from OTM.”

sethapan Buddhani Director

Tourism Authority of Thailand (Mumbai)

“OTM is a great opportunity to target the Indian tourism market. The biggest problem we are facing is that there is

no direct flight between India and Indonesia. We are trying hard to solve this problem by next year.”

Titik WahyuniHead of Promotion

Ministry of Tourism & Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia

“We are showcasing 7,107 islands here at OTM Mumbai. The Philippines has been participating in OTM for many

years; it’s a place where we promote the Philippines in a big way. We are really very happy.”

susan J Del MundoMarketing & Promotions

Tourism Promotion Board, Philippines

“We mainly use OTM for our promotions in India. Other than Mumbai and Delhi, we want to go to

other cities like Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore for building our sales network. OTM is a

great opportunity for Canada to showcase in India.”Tina singh

Assistant Vice President Canadian Tourism Commission Representative in India

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | maRcH 2013 3 COVER STORY

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According to a market survey conducted by the organisers of OTM, Mumbai and Delhi are the top two travel markets in the country.

“Surveys conducted at OTM Mumbai and Delhi revealed a marked preference for trade focus and so we decided to allocate two days for travel trade visitors, while only the last day the show was also opened to general visitors,” said Sanjiv Agarwal, the Chairman and CEO of Fairfest Media who has been organising travel shows across the country for more than 20 years.

Apart from Mumbai and Delhi, Fairfest organises travel shows branded as TTF in eight other cities. “In a continent-size country like India, one show cannot cater to all parts of India. However, for a foreign tourism board planning to participate in just one show in India, it has to be OTM Mumbai – the largest travel market in India,” he added.

“We had a wonderful experience [at OTM]. We met a beautiful blend of prominent travel agents, absolute cruise professionals and some people who do not have a clue about cruising, but want to know more. So it gave us a very good platform to tell people what cruising is all about. Many clients came and said they wanted to start cruising as their second business, so for us it was a very good response. From the reviews we read about OTM, we were very keen on coming to Delhi, because

that was the market for us to touch. OTM’s support is commend-able in understanding a new market.”

Ian Banerjee Director, Oceania Cruises & Global Anchor Cruises

“Earlier we were mainly into selling Asian cruises like Star Cruises, now we have taken MSC, Silversea, etc, some of which are very high-end. We recently did a wedding on a cruise and we are looking at this as a great opportunity. A key role in our success can be attributed to OTM. That we have gone from a smaller stall a few years back to a larger stall this year shows how we have devel-oped our B2B and B2C markets from OTM.”

Kishan Biyani Director, Ark Travels

“Cruising is the upcoming holiday option now-adays. As a new entrant to OTM, we outdid our expectations and saw the number of people we wanted to see. It is time for travel promoters to consider cruise as a serious travel option and give it prominence. We are expecting good business to follow.”

Midhat hussain Regional Manager (Northern India), Tirun Travel Marketing promoting

Azamara Club Cruises, Royal Caribbean International & Celebrity X Cruises

Cruise Hub proves huge success at OTMA major attraction this year was the Cruise Hub, showcasing leading brands of the global cruising industry. The cruise lines represented in the hub were Star Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), MSC Cruises, Silversea Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn Cruises, Windstar Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Aza-mara Club Cruises, Costa Cruises and Oceania Cruises. All of these cruise liners offered an array of feature-rich innovative facilities, ame-nities and services to passengers who wanted a perfect holiday. These cruise lines were represented by Ark Holidays, Guideline Travels, Gem Tours and Travels, Tirun Travel Marketing, Stic Travel Group and Global Anchor Cruises.

“Seeing the result of our previous participation in other exhibitions organised by Fairfest, especially in Kolkata, we

decided to join OTM to network among visitors and exhibitors from other parts of India. OTM also gives the opportunity to approach other country representatives

and tell them about our tourism products. OTM’s promotional communications also help in promoting Bangladesh as a

tourist destination.” anjali rani chakraborty

Joint Secretary Bangladesh Tourism Board, Govt of Bangladesh

“We want to tell Indians that Egypt is safe, and OTM is the best platform for that. We have participated in other

events, but OTM is number one for us. Whether it’s B2B or B2C, we have received a very good response.”

Dr adel MasryDirector

Egyptian Tourism Office in India

“India is the fastest growing market and OTM is an excellent platform for showcasing our country. In

Mumbai and Delhi we have shown people what kind of exotic tourism products Mexico has. We are very pleased

and very happy to be here at OTM.”

Guillermo Eguiarte Director, (Japan, Korea, India and South East Asia)

Mexico Tourism Board

“OTM is extremely helpful for us – that’s why we are taking part in every fair and every time the

numbers of participants are increasing.”

Dhruba rai Senior Manager, Corporate Services

Nepal Tourism Board


“We are showcasing many hotspots of Macau here at OTM because it is a great opportunity not only for Macau but for

the entire travel fraternity. It is also a great platform to meet people from other cities. We are getting a lot of B2B

and B2C enquiries and it’s been a great experience.”Navritu Puri

Account Manager Macau Government Tourist Office Representative in India

“We are focusing on India as a prominent market as we have three direct flights in a week from Mumbai and

Bangalore. OTM is one of the best platforms. Maldives’ presence will have good impact on the

Maldivian travel industry.”Ibrahim asimDeputy Director

Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation

“We won the prize for best new destination in OTM Mumbai. That was very good for us. We are very

impressed; a lot of people are showing interest in Zambia The crowds are amazing and fantastic.”

Mato shimabale Director (Marketing)

Zambia Tourism Board

“Our participation in OTM helps us in a big way to bring more tourists to Russia. For the last six years, we have been participating in OTM, and each year it is giving

more and more tourists to Russia. In 2012, the stream of tourists from India to Russia grew 100%.”

aleksey Kuchinov Head of Communications, World Without Borders

“We would like to promote the villages in Bhutan and OTM is the best place for that. OTM is awesome; OTM

is wonderful – that is why we are here every year. We look forward to coming here again and again.”

Damcho rinzinAccount Manager, Marketing & Promotion

Tourism Council of Bhutan


“From Turkey, I am promoting almost 20 travel packages. I come to OTM every year, because I get very good response. OTM is my favourite; I recommend it to all my friends. OTM is the best in India.”

Murtaza Kalender CEO, Travel Shop Turkey

“We are promoting the national parks of Tanzania at OTM. OTM is a superb oppor-tunity for Tanzania to attract adventure-lov-ing tourists from India and we are very happy to be here.”

haika John Bayona Chief Park Warden, Tanzania National Parks

“OTM for me is a place where I can do my business networking and expand my vision. This is the place where I meet people who are willing to go to Corbett and I get a chance to showcase my resort to them to develop my business.”

Kunal aggarwal Director, Solluna Resort, Jim Corbett National Park

“Our business was very good and very positive. We are extremely happy that we are here at OTM. We have got a very good response from our buyers and we are look-ing forward to coming to future OTMs. It’s a great plus point for our company to be here and be a part of OTM.”

sheikh Mohammad Iqbal Managing Director, Hotel Pine Spring

“We have launched a new B2B product and we want to focus on this. That’s why we came here. Our experience at the OTM for the past 3 years has always been good.”

Mihir sawhney General Manager, Leisure Tours

“We participated both in Mumbai and Delhi. I heard from our colleagues in Mumbai that the show was excellent. OTM Delhi was also good.”

ravinder Talwar Area Sales Manager (India), Thai Airways

“OTM has been very productive for us. We get an opportunity from this great platform to network with a lot of regions and with a lot of trade partners, develop business, develop relations and take our business forward.”

Thomas E ramapuram Joint Director – Sales, Orange County

“We got good potential buyers, and we got approximately 550-560 sub-agents who have logged in to our website. It’s a big suc-cess for us. It’s the first time we are in OTM and we got the result and we are very happy. Definitely, we will be participating in other events also, especially at Kolkata.”

rupak sirohi Director, Lazycow.com

“With OTM being the largest travel fair in India and attracting thousands of vis-itors, we expect this platform will be most helpful to reach to travel industry as well as the holidaymakers.”

rajesh Poddar Managing Director, Paracoat Products Limited

“The most important event in Bahrain is the Formula One Grand Prix that normally happens in April. Many tourists visit Bah-rain during that time. Other than that, many other sporting events, air shows etc, take place throughout the year. It is also famous for pearls and pure gold. We are here to promote Bahrain as a new desti-nation for Indians, and we found OTM most suitable for that.”

Mushtak D Managing Director, Farhat International Tours & Travels

Russia doubles presence at OTM 2013

On Day 2 of OTM Mumbai, the Federal Agency for Tourism along with World Without Borders drew large crowds

of travel trade visitors and other OTM partici-pants to its highly informative ‘Presentation of the Russian National Tourism Product’ event.

Sharing the dais were central and regional government officials from Russia as well as private operators from Russia and India, representing a doubling in size for Russia’s participation this year.

Officials said they hoped next year’s participation will be even bigger, with plans to add Siberia at OTM 2014.

“Last year, Russia was present here and we were very pleased. This year the delegation is dou-ble,” Aleksey M Mzareulov, Deputy Consul General of Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Mumbai told Travel News Digest. “Not only are the tourism agencies participating, but regional governments are also joining us to promote their destinations. Krasnodar Regional Government has come all the way to participate in OTM. We doubled the number of inbound tourists to Russia last year thanks to OTM and we look forward to more business in 2013. Gujarat state has a special part-nership with Krasnodar region and we are also in talks with Goa to establish a similar partnership.”

Punjab puts on power-packed presentation for trade & media

Punjab Tourism put up a vibrant and colourful pavilion at OTM Mumbai displaying pilgrim-age tourism, farm stay and food tourism. The

state is also strongly promoting heritage walks around Amritsar and Panj Sarvovar.

With the latest campaign strategy, ‘Eat, Pray, Stay’, Punjab Tourism interacted with travel trade and media at a power-packed roadshow on day one of OTM Mumbai. Senior officials from the Tourism Department of Government of Punjab addressed the gathering and responded to various questions from the audience.

Geetika Kalha, Principal Secretary, Tourism, Government of Punjab said, “OTM is more of a business-to-business kind of a place. The queries coming now from the travel trade for Punjab have increased manifold because in the last three to four years, we have participated very aggressively in trade fairs. It is a two-way process for us: by their questions we learn, and then we come back with better response and answers. In the process we also get good business.”

U.S. Embassy gives details of visa procedures at OTM

Monica Shie and Satya Prakash from the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy, New Delhi gave an interactive presen-

tation on revised U.S. Visa procedures at OTM. They suggested applicants not to go via agents but rather apply directly. The U.S. Visa section has started group appointment facility for tour operators, but made it very clear that each indi-vidual will have to appear for visa interview. Travel trade participants present in the interac-tion were informed that interviews could also be

held in regional languages. “The session was fantastic, we are so happy to be here. We are always interested in having

travel industry people understand our process, our policy, our procedure, so that they can in turn share it with their clients. We want them to understand that it is not a difficult process. OTM is a wonderful opportunity for us. We do this kind of information sharing session all the time, but here at OTM, we could reach to a larger audience. We are really glad that OTM gave us the slot,” U.S. Visa officer Shie told Travel News Digest.

Uttarakhand pitches itself as a spiritual & adventure hotspot

Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB) has joined hands with German International Coop-eration (GIZ) in implementing the Regional Eco-

nomic Development (RED) Programme in Uttarakhand. The RED programme, in association with the Government of Uttarakhand, has a strong focus on developing strategies to promote Uttarakhand as a potential destination for tourism and investment.

Ajit K Singh, Joint Director, Uttarakhand Tourism, said, “Uttarakhand is participating with the maximum number of stakeholders here at OTM. We are projecting our tourism products in a different manner this year and OTM is a great platform for that. We are celebrating the Interna-tional Yoga Festival at Rishikesh and Haridwar, while the focus destination remains Chardham.”

Jammu and Kashmir assures tourist safety at OTM

The Tourism department of Jammu and Kashmir came to OTM Mumbai to assure the members of the travel trade about the safety and security of tourists in the state.

Addressing the travel trade and media, Minister of Tour-ism, Govt of Jammu & Kashmir, Ghulam Ahmed Mir said, “I have seen trade fairs before but OTM is the most amaz-ing. It made me feel upbeat about the prospects of tourism in the country and in my state Kashmir. The mission of tourism promotion that the OTM fulfils is very important.”

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A suggestion to extend the visa-on-arrival facility to tourists from Germany is under the active consideration of the government of India, tourism minister K Chiranjeevi said at the inauguration of the India Pavilion at the International Tourism Bourse (ITB) in Berlin, Germany.

“Germany is an important source market for India. During 2011, over 240,000 German tourists visited India. We are looking forward to further increasing the tourist traffic between the two countries,” the minister said.

The minister said foreign tourist arrivals to India constitute only 0.64% of the world tourist arrivals and its foreign exchange earnings accounted for 1.61% of the

world tourism receipts.“Our effort is to consolidate

on our well developed cultural and heritage products and develop new niche products

like rural tourism, wellness and medical tourism, adventure and wildlife tourism, film tourism, monsoon tourism and golf, polo, sports tourism,” he added.

India considers visa-on- arrival for Germans

The West Bengal government has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state-run helicopter firm Pawan Hans Limited to start chopper services with an aim to develop infrastructure in the tourism, health care and industry sectors and for disaster management.

“This MoU will go a long way in creating basic infra-structure to improve connec-tivity between various towns of West Bengal,” Pawan Hans chairman and managing direc-tor Anil Srivastava said after signing the agreement.

West Bengal Chief Minis-ter Mamata Banerjee explained that since the state has diverse geographical features, includ-ing the hills of Darjeeling and the islands of the Sundarbans, air connectivity was important not only for tourism and indus-try but also for rescue opera-tions during disasters.

“To connect towns like Bal-urghat, Malda, Siliguri and Cooch Behar, we can give subsi-dies in the first year if the seats are not filled,” she said.

Places like Diamond Har-bour, Sundarbans, Kharag-pur, Raichak, Haldia, Dur-gapur, Digha, Bolpur, need

better connectivity for devel-oping tourism and industry, Banerjee said.

Pawan Hans has planned to initiate three kinds of services—helicopter, fixed wing aircraft services and a sea plane that can land both in water and on an airstrip.

Pawan Hans chopper may soon fly in West Bengal

Mumbai-based consultant to help Chandigarh tourism

Madhya Pradesh starts air-taxi services to Allahabad

The long-awaited ambitious tourism projects to place Chandigarh on the regional tourism map will finally gain momentum.

Soon, the Union Ministry of Tourism, UT Administra-tion and Darashaw, a Mum-bai-based central empanelled consultant, will sign a joint memorandum and the latter will assist the UT Adminis-tration to prepare infrastruc-ture projects to boost tourism in the city.

Recently, the Union Min-istry of Tourism has also directed the UT Administra-tion to expedite the work for various tourism projects in the city.

Madhya Pradesh State Tour-ism Development Corpora-tion (MPSTDC) and Ventura Air Connect have recently launched an air taxi service to Allahabad for pilgrims from Bhopal and Indore.

The air taxi will take around one hour and 45 min-utes to reach Allahabad from

Bhopal and vice-versa.Along with citizens of the

state capital, the citizens of Indore and Khajuraho will also benefit from this service.

The air taxi of Ven-tura will fly to Bhopal from Indore first in the morn-ing and then it will depart for Allahabad.

INDIA

Maharashtra government has formed a committee, to be headed by the Mumbai Munic-ipal Commissioner, to formu-late a special tourism plan for Mumbai.

“Mumbai is the only metro in the world that has wild-life, seashore, mangroves and migratory birds,” Dr Jag-dish Patil, Managing Director, Maharashtra Tourism Devel-opment Corporation (MTDC) said. He further emphasised that this special committee will

prepare separate plans for the city and its suburbs.

Patil said the plan will be ready in a month’s time. Brihan-mumbai Electricity Supply and Transport will launch special compressed natural gas buses at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park for tourists. Ten air-condi-tioned buses have been acquired for this purpose. For the renova-tion and upgradation work, the Forest Department has decided to hand over three guest houses in the national park to MTDC.

Maharashtra forms committee to boost tourism in Mumbai

West Bengal woos private investors for setting up tourism projectsWest Bengal government is seeking investment in tourism projects of around ₨4,000 crore with assured availability of land. “There is no problem of land acquisition as the government has already allotted land to these projects. We want businessmen to come to the state and invest without any fear,” Amit Mitra, Minister for Finance, Government of West Bengal said recently.

Mitra said he had one-to-one interaction with a total of 35-40 serious investors in the hotel infrastructure business over two days and “many were attracted by projects proposed by us.”

“We have earmarked land

at Sunderbans, Digha and many other places for setting up budget and star hotels and

these projects are bankable, commercial projects in the PPP mode,” Mitra said.


The potential for aero and aqua adventure sports in Tamil Nadu that had remained latent for long is all set to emerge in a big way with the state government seeking the expertise of the National Adventure Foundation for

initiating a series of pro-grammes targeting varying age groups.

This new move will see the branding of Tamil Nadu as an adventure sports hub.

“We have plans to trans-form Tamil Nadu into an

adventure sports hub. The biggest assets are our 11 boat-ing yards spread across the state. They will be put to good use,” said Hemant Kumar Sinha, CMD, Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC).

Tamil Nadu to become adventure sports hub

Sambhar lake to become tourist hotspot soon

Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan, India’s largest saline water body, would soon be devel-oped as a new tourist des-tination which currently attracts nearly one-third of total foreign tourist flow of the country.

Recently, Hindustan Salt Limited (HSL), a public sec-tor company, has signed an MoU with the Indian Tour-ist Development Corpora-tion (ITDC) to develop this

lake as tourist hotspot to cre-ate a new golden triangle — Jaipur-Sambhar-Ajmer.

Along with its popularity for producing salt, this saline water lake spread over an area of about 190 square km in dry season and extended to about 230 square km during mon-soon, is also a winter abode of thousands of flamingos and other birds, which land here during the winter season from northern Asia.

The Maharashtra govern-ment has signed a memoran-dum of understanding (MoU) worth ₨37.38 crore with the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation and the state Forest Develop-ment Corporation for devel-opment and promotion of eco-tourism projects in the Vidarbha region.

Maharashtra Public

Works and Tourism Minis-ter Chhagan Bhujbal said the central government has already released half of the proposed amount, which is being utilised to build tents, nature trails and ‘mach-aans’ for tourists visiting forest areas under Nagpur, Bhandara, Gondia, Amara-vati and Chandrapur districts in the region.

Looking to tap the poten-tial of the long sea coast and the network of backwaters, canals and rivers, Kerala has embarked on a plan to pro-mote leisure watersports. Ker-ala State Tourism has sought assistance from the National Institute of Water Sports in Goa to work out a detailed project report in this regard.

“We are expecting the report within two months,” Kerala Tourism Director Rani George said. “After that we will obtain the pol-icy clearances and start

implementation of the plan step by step.”

The state has good scope for a wide range of waters-ports, such as windsurfing, kayaking and canoeing. Pop-ular, traditional sports like snake boat racing might also be introduced.

Apart from estab-lished water-front desti-nations in Kerala like Pun-namada, Ashtamudi, Kumarakom and Bakel, more suitable spots would be iden-tified for leisure watersports, George said.

Kerala Tourism Development corporation plans religious harmony toursKerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) has intro-duced a tour package covering major pilgrim centres – titled God’s own country, where gods live in harmony – to give a major thrust to the diminishing charm of the state as a communally tolerant society.

“The plan is to showcase Kerala as a melting pot of dif-ferent cultures, beliefs and val-ues, particularly when there are attempts to create religious dis-cord among people from some corners,” Tourism Minister, A.P Anil Kumar said.

As part of this new plan, KTDC will launch a one-day tour programme in Kochi, con-necting the Kalady Sankara Mutt, Kodungalloor Cheraman Juma Masjid, Basilica of Our

Lady of Ransom, Vallarpadam-Ernakulam and Mattancheri Jewish Synagogue.

The government has given its green signal to the proposal and sanctioned ₨1.20 crore for the upgradation of infrastructure

facilities in the proposed cir-cuit. “We have already initiated procedures to buy an air-con-ditioned Volvo bus and once we get the bus, the project will become operational,” the min-ister said.

Maharashtra: ₨37.38 crore MoU to develop eco-tourism in Vidarbha

Kerala promotes leisure watersports

INDIA


Himachal Pradesh registers record tourist inflow

Chiranjeevi appreciates Chhattisgarh’s effort in tourism development

Odisha to develop Tampara wetland as a major tourist destinationThe mesmerising hilly state of

Himachal Pradesh has regis-tered one of the highest tour-ist inflows in the country, including over five lakh for-eign tourists. Altogether 1.64 crore tourists visited the state in 2012.

According to the data revealed by the State Tour-ism Department, the estima-tion of 1.64 crore is an all-time high since 2004. The increase is 6% to 7% compared to the previous year.

In 2011, around 1.50 crore tourists visited the state, including over 4.85 lakh for-eign tourists and in 2010, the figure was 1.32 crore, includ-ing over 4.53 lakh foreign tour-ists. Tourist inflow has been increasing year after year. Favourite tourist locations are Shimla, Manali and Dharam-shala. “We are working on a threefold strategy to increase the tourist inflow in the state,” said Subhasish Panda, Direc-tor, Tourism department.

Panda explained that the strategy entails wide-spread publicity and aware-ness, focus on transit zones

between two major tour-ist locations where tourists can halt and can visit minor

tourist locations in the state and developing major tourist locations in the state.

Union Minister for Tourism and the popular South Indian film star K Chiranjeevi praised the sincere efforts of Chhattisgarh Government for development of tourism indus-try in the state, an official statement from the government revealed.

Chiranjeevi also appreciated the lively participation of Chhattisgarh Tourism Board at ITB Berlin, the world’s largest tourism trade fair.

Chairman of Chhattisgarh Tour-ism Board Krishna Kumar Rai and principal secretary of Tourism

Department, KDP Rao, paid a courtesy visit to Chiranjeevi at the Berlin fair. Both the officials also invited the union minister for a tour to Chhattisgarh.

The statement further asserted that the pavilion put up by Chhat-tisgarh Tourism Board at ITB Ber-lin drew attention from the foreign tourists from various countries. The pavilion predominantly high-lighted Chhattisgarh exclusive-ness with historical and natural tourist places.

Tampara, a wetland near Chhatrapur, the district headquarter town of Gan-jam district in Odisha, will soon go through a major development process fol-lowing state government’s decision to revive the mini lake.

Various state depart-ments including tourism, water resources and World Bank funded Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project (ICZMP) would actively take part in the development of the 5.8 km-long, 670-meter-wide wet-land, situated at a distance of four km from the National Highway. Chief Secretary B

K Patnaik recently visited the place and delineated on its development as an exclu-sive tourist destination.

Various attractive facili-ties like an eco park, jetties, floating restaurants, cot-tages, tented accommoda-tion and boating are being planned for the lake.

“When all these infra-structure facilities will be developed, we think the site will be one of the major tourist spots in the state and will attract more tourists. It will also be an important source of liveli-hood for people in the area,” said district tourist officer K C Nishank.

INDIA


Turkey has extended its full cooperation to help Rajasthan in its bid to upgrade its tourism infrastructure and preserve its precious heritage.

“Rajasthan is a beauti-ful place but a lot more can be done,” Turkish Ambassador to India Burak Akcapar said. “We

have expertise and one of the reasons why Turkey attracts a lot of tourists is its excellent infrastructure,” he added.

The ambassador also expressed his wish to develop trade relations with Rajasthan in various sectors. “We have been importing a lot of granite

from Rajasthan,” Akcapar said. “One of the main aims of partic-ipating in the stone market is to increase awareness of Turkish marble, which is of the highest quality in the world. We would like to see more association of our businessmen in Rajasthan,” he said.

Turkey offers help in Rajasthan tourism sector

IIm-a helps Bihar attract tourists

Bihar Chief Minister Nit-ish Kumar has sought assis-tance from Modi land for tour-ism development in the state. Bihar is involving students of the Indian Institute of Man-agement (IIM), Ahmedabad for developing and promot-ing Bihar Tourism. Six stu-dents of the post-graduate programme in Agri-business Management have worked on a project to improve the tour-ist inflow to Bihar. The stu-dents identified the problems

in infrastructure, developed websites with attractive pack-age deals and offered solutions in developing ecotourism in the state.

The students suggested developing two districts that have the potential to attract eco tourists—Madhubani, which is home to Madhubani paint-ings, and Bhagalpur, famous for home-made khadi and silk. The reports have been submit-ted to the respective district magistrates in Bihar.

If you want to enjoy the quint-essential splendor of Sikkim, you should opt for the home-stay facility. Many villages in Sikkim provide tourists with facilities for traditional home stay.

Zuluk, a small village with a population of about 700 people, is one of them. Located near the Indo-China border, Zuluk is an upcom-ing tourist spot and a para-dise for nature and adven-ture lovers.

“We started green cot-tage for tourists through a self-help group. The home-stay concept was launched in October 2008 by few locals of this place. From then onwards there has been no looking back. In peak season we have 100% bookings,” said Rajesh Rai, owner of Zuluk homestay.

Along with offering com-fort of home to tourists, the homestay facility helps vil-lagers generate extra income.

Dimoria festival promotes eco-tourism in assamIn a bid to promote the tradi-tions and cultures of tribes in the region, Assam recently held a five-day ‘Dimoria Ethnic Festival’ in the Dimoria Block

of Kamrup District. Dimoria is home to many tribes, includ-ing the Karbis, Tiwas, Bodos and Garos.

The festival not only opened

a door to promote tribal cul-ture, including food and cos-tumes, but also allowed local weavers and young entrepre-neurs to show their work.

“Such an event is happen-ing for the first time in this small village,” entrepreneur Rupa Athing said. “Earlier we could not sell our products, but such festivals help in market-ing food and clothes. Women are unable to move out of their villages, but now they can showcase their talent through these festivals. It is very good and it should continue.”

Tribal dances and folk music enthralled audiences, while ethnic cuisines delighted food connoisseurs. Sports activities, including archery and javelin throw, attracted many as well.

Odisha to explore Buddhist tourism potentialOdisha is stepping up efforts to explore its immense poten-tial to turn the state into a Bud-dhist tourism hub like Bodh-gaya in Bihar and Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh.

Large-scale excavation is tak-ing place in Lalitgiri, Udai-giri and Ratnagiri, hilly areas in the state with the highest concentration of Bud-dhist remains.

“During the excavation of Ratnagiri, which was carried out by former director general of ASI, Dr Debala Mitra between 1958-61, two monasteries were found; the bigger one was about 55 metres square while the smaller one had several stupas and temples,” Sushant Kumar

Kar, assistant superintending archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), said.

In order to promote the state, Odisha Tourism Development

Corporation (OTDC) also conducted a week-long tour jointly with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation.

Homestay tourism flourishes in rural Sikkim

INDIA


Jammu and Kashmir is look-ing to promote wildlife tour-ism in the state and tap the huge potential of the state’s nature reserves for attract-ing tourists. The state will soon kick-start an awareness campaign about local wildlife

destinations. State Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environ-ment Mian Altaf Ahmad said.

Promoting wildlife tour-ism will boost the tourism sec-tor and help the government to create more jobs for the locals, the minister said.

According to Ahmad, last year more than one crore pil-grims visited Mata Vaishno Devi shrine at Katra, stress-ing the need to offer other attractions, including wildlife tourism to such tourists, he said.

J&K to focus on wildlife tourism

Gujarat mulls single-window facilitation authority for film tourism

Gujarat government is consid-ering a single window facilita-tion authority, that will fast track the investments for set-ting up film studios.

The Gujarat Tourism Department has recently launched a separate single

window clearance desk to help filmmakers explore various locations and extend logistic support. The Tourism Corpo-ration of Gujarat Ltd will also offer accommodation for film crew at discounted tariffs in state-owned hotels.

“We have just started a sin-gle window desk to help film-makers shoot in state. Usu-ally, getting clearances from local authorities is a cumber-some process. This is a one-stop solution,” Vipul Mittra, Secretary Tourism, Civil Avi-ation and Pilgrimage, Govern-ment of Gujarat said.

With a massive number of tourists visiting Gujarat in the last two years, Gujarat government has planned to invest ₨730 crore to develop its tourism infrastructure in 22 districts across the state.

The Tourism of Gujarat Corporation Limited (TGCL) is particularly concentrating on renovating infrastructure and methodical planning for promotion of different popular destinations of Gujarat under the banner of

Khusbhoo Gujarat Ki. The state also plans to kick start an investor-friendly tourism policy this year.

Goa: Selaulim Dam may become water sports destination

The Selaulim Dam that supplies potable and irrigation water to 80% of Goa may now double up as a water sports tourist attrac-tion, said State Tourism Minis-ter Dilip Parulekar.

He said that there is enough potential to develop water sports in the reservoir, located in Sanguem Taluka of South Goa.

“Such a possibility can be explored after conducting a joint study with the officials from department of tourism, water resources department and national institute of water sports,” Parulekar said.

He said that the feasi-bility report on developing the place for water sports is expected to be completed before November 2013.

Gujarat to invest ₨730 crore to develop tourism infrastructure

INDIA

Government looking to reinvigorate tourism sector in Jammu & Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir govern-ment has said it is enthusias-tic to restore the tourism glory of the state and encourage its “vast potential” in adventure tourism.

“The government has taken effective steps for the holis-tic development of the tour-ism sector in the state. We are keen to restore the tourism glory of the state and show-case its vast potential in adven-ture tourism,” Tourism Minis-ter Ghulam Ahmad Mir said.

Adventure tourism holds

great potential to generate jobs for the state’s people, especially the youth, he said, adding that it should also receive focused attention along with conventional and pilgrim tourism.

The government is adding adventure attractions for tour-ists at various destinations in the state.

“The trained and skilled human resource of the state could greatly benefit from the adventure tourism industry,” he added.AirAsia-Tata airline venture

gets govt’s approvalThe finance ministry on March 6 gave the green sig-nal to the investment pro-posal of Malaysian bud-get carrier AirAsia which

seeks to enter Indian mar-ket through a joint venture with Tata Group and another company.

“AirAsia’s proposal has

been cleared. It is as per the policy which allows up to 49 per cent FDI. ₨80 crore is initial investment,” a senior government official said.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), headed by DEA Secretary Arvind Mayaram, approved the proposal.

AirAsia has applied to FIPB for 49% share in a venture with Tata Sons Ltd and Arun Bhatia’s Telestra Tradeplace Pvt Ltd.

This would be the first entry of a foreign carrier in the domestic aviation sector after the liberalisation of FDI policy in September last year.


TaT, TaaI & Indigo airline join hands for agents Fam TripA FAM trip for travel agents from Kolkata, Manipur, Jam-shedpur, Patna and Shillong was organised by the Tour-ism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) along with Indigo Airlines. The trip to Thailand aimed to showcase new destinations such as Ayutthaya, Hua Hin etc.

The group comprises 15 travel agents and one staff

of TAT New Delhi.TAT aims to intro-

duce the relatively new destination Ayutthaya to travel agents along with beautiful beaches of Chaam and Hua Hin.

This trip also presented Thailand as a perfect destina-tion for holiday, family, cele-brations and honeymooners. It also aims to create more awareness of Thailand to travel agents in Tier II cities.

Indonesia, official partner in ITB BerlinIndonesia was the official part-ner of the world’s largest tour-ism exhibition, Internationale Tourism Bourse (ITB) Berlin 2013, paving the way for it to attract more foreign tourists.

Deputy Minister of Tourism in Indonesia Sapta Nirwandar said that Indonesia had to lobby with the organiser since 2011 to get the prestigious status in the event.

“They recognised our uniqueness, high potentiali-ties in tourism sector that led them to accept Indonesia as the official partner country in 2013 ITB,” he said.

With the official partner country in 2013 ITB, Indo-nesia received various bene-fits in the event, including 410

square meters pavilion in stra-tegic location, several promo-tion billboards, advertisements and other necessities to promote Indonesia’s tourism.

Besides showcasing its natu-ral wonders, the world’s largest

archipelago shined the spot-light on seven other aspects of the country: culture and tradi-tions, nature and eco-tourism, leisure sports, cruises, gastron-omy and shopping, spas, well-ness and MICE events.

Qatar Airways holds emergency exercise to test airline preparednessQatar Airways has held its Annual Emergency Exercise to conduct a realistic assessment of the airline’s preparedness in the event of a real life aircraft emergency.

The exercise involved a Qatar Airways aircraft experiencing an emergency shortly after take-off from one of its worldwide destinations.

Almost 200 staff members including key senior execu-tives and Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker took part in the exer-cise in Doha which was coor-dinated by the airline’s Group Safety and Security, Contingency Planning team. A special Emer-gency Exercise Task Force was formed with representatives from several departments across the company.

Upon exercise notification,

almost every aspect of the emer-gency response was activated, including the Qatar Airways Group Emergency Control Cen-tre, Operations Control Centre, Deployed Response Group, Spe-cial Assistance Team and Tele-phone Enquiry Centre.

Simulated television news broadcasts of the unfolding emer-gency and black box tapes were created and viewed by staff in the Emergency Operations Centre, to

give the activity an aspect of real-ism and immediacy.

Al Baker said every staff mem-ber at the airline must be pre-pared for the unlikely event of an emergency.

“In the event of a real life emer-gency everyone will be in involved in responding in some way, which is why it remains a top priority of this company to ensure all staff are well prepared and aware of their responsibilities,” he said.

Thailand promotes wedding destinations at India event

Indonesia gears up to tap cruise tourism potentialThe Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry of Indo-nesia explains the emerg-ing cruise tourism has the potential to support Indone-sia’s tourism industry in the coming years.

Sapta Nirwandar, tour-ism and creative economy deputy minister, said that cruise tourism had not yet been developed properly, but the opening of new cruise port facilities across Indone-sia could attract operators of international luxury liners to the country.

One of the potential cruise ports was Benoa Harbor in Bali, Nirwandar said.

“Indonesia is an archi-pelagic country with 17,000 islands scattered all over the

country’s territory. We have to optimise our geographical condition,” he said.

Benoa Harbor is now being developed as a turn-around port, capable of accommodat-ing international cruises that embark or disembark from the island.

“Holiday makers from European, as well as Asian and Pacific countries, have started to enjoy cruis-ing around various tour-ist destinations. Indone-sia can capture some of the growing cruise market,” he added.

The ministry has been undertaking aggressive pro-motional activities to boost Indonesia’s cruise tourism at various international events.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand New Delhi, Ban-yan Tree Hotels and Resorts and Angsana Resorts & Spa recently organised a Wedding Planner Presentation ‘Desti-nation Weddings in Amazing Thailand’ at the The Oberoi, New Delhi. Wedding planners/organisers and media partici-pated in the event.

TAT explained over all products and facilities for wedding and celebrations in Thailand while an official from Banyan Tree & Angsana presented their products and facilities.

The 2nd edition of the Wed-ding and Celebration book ‘Fall in love in India & get married in Thailand’ by TAT was also introduced during the event.

ASIA

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | maRcH 2013 15 ASIA

India and Japan have agreed to sign a deal to strengthen cooperation in the tourism sector. This was decided recently at a meeting in New Delhi between Dr K Chiranjeevi, Minister of State with Independent Charge for Tourism, Government of India, and Hiroshi Kajiyama, Senior Vice Minister for Tourism, Government of Japan.

Both countries have joined hands to explore new opportunities in tourism, especially in the field of human resource development, exchange of tour operators,

investment in the tourism sector, and exchange of

information related to the tourism sector.

India, Japan to strengthen tourism ties Cox’s Bazar to get first luxury hotel by next year

Upscale tourists in Bangla-desh will soon get an exclu-sive place to stay in the beach town of Cox’s Bazar.

Radisson Blu Hotel, sched-uled to start its operation sometime next year, will be the first ever ocean front full-ser-vice luxury five-star hotel in the country’s tourist hotspot.

Tourists from the coun-try and abroad throng to Cox’s Bazar year round to

the world’s longest sandy sea beach. The tourist hub is yet to get a five-star accommoda-tion facility.

Md Altaf Hossain, the Project Director, said, the hotel is going to introduce helicopter service to their guests interested in the nat-ural splendour of several islands including St. Mar-tin’s, Shahpori, Sonadia, and Maheskhali.

Taiwan’s 2013 foreign tourist arrivals forecast to reach 7.7 millionForeign tourist arrivals to Tai-wan could increase from last year’s record 7.3 million to 7.7 million this year, with China and Southeast Asian countries the main sources of growth, according to the estimation of Tourism Bureau under the Min-istry of Transportation and Communications.

The bureau will step up efforts to lure wealthy travellers from China and Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam because they are showing enhanced buy-ing power, which could help boost Taiwan’s economy, Trans-portation Minister Mao Chi-kuo said.

“We are planning to intro-duce more ferry services across the Taiwan Strait to complement air traffic,” Mao said.

Tourism malaysia targets a million tourists from India

Indonesia meets 8 million tourist target for 2012

Tourism Malaysia is target-ing about eight lakh tourists from India during the calen-dar year 2013 as against about seven lakh tourists’ arrival from the country last year.

Amran Abdul Rahman, Director, Tourism Malay-sia, said, “In the year ahead, Tourism Malaysia aims to

promote high-end tourism like spas, eco-tourism, golf and exotic destinations”. Their predominant aim is to go beyond tier 1 markets to tier 2 and tier 3 markets to reach a wider audience and to reach a figure of one mil-lion tourists from India in near future.

Indonesia exceeded its foreign tourist target of 8 million vis-itors last year, recording a 5% increase from 2011.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported that 8.04 million foreign tourists visited the archipelago in 2012, up from 7.65 million in the pre-vious year.

The figure was in line with the target set by the

Tourism and Creative Econ-omy Ministry.

The BPS also announced a 5.8% increase in income from the tourism sector to $9.1 billion.

While Bali remains Indo-nesia’s most popular tourist destination, Bandung, Yog-yakarta and Balikpapan reported a steady increase in visitors in 2012.

The ‘Kimchi and Sushi Proj-ect’ is a joint venture tourism initiative by the Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) and Korea Tourism Organiza-tion (KTO), where tourists can go to both countries and have a guided tour for the price of one. Through a massive network consisting of four carriers and 13

local travel agencies, the project aims to kick off sometime soon.

JNTO’s executive director Singapore, Motonari Adachi, said that the intention is “to cre-ate the awareness of the short and convenient flight connec-tions between South Korea and Japan and offer travellers a wide variety of choices to travel to

other cities in both South Korea and Japan.”

KTO director Singapore, Steve Yong, pointed out that the two routes servicing both countries are Incheon-Tokyo and Incheon-Hokkaido, the flights of which are just 2 hours and 2 hours, 35 minutes long, respectively.

Japan, South Korea collaborate for first ‘Kimchi and Sushi’ tourism project


The Sri Lanka Tourism Pro-motion Bureau (SLTPB) under the guidance of the Ministry of Economic Development recently organised a three-day event in Bengaluru in a bid to provide the best holiday expe-rience for Indian tourists.

The campaign, named ‘Get Sri Lankaned’, saw flurry of activities like fashion shows, food festivals, B2B meet-ings to enhance travel and trade between the two coun-tries and business seminars. The events included nearly 70 Sri Lankan public and pri-vate sector institutions, rep-resenting tourism, trade and investment.

Sri Lanka had 186,525 Indian tourists in 2012; the

biggest number arrived from a single country. The ‘Get Sri Lankaned’ campaign will also

be held in other cities, such as Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Cochin and Ahmedabad.

Sri Lanka woos Indian tourists with a new campaign

Dubai to send sms on traffic laws to Saudi touristsThe Dubai Tourism Board is considering educating Saudi tourists on traffic laws in the UAE following violations by Saudi drivers.

“The board is looking for-ward to notify Saudi tourists via text message about traffic rules when entering into the UAE territories,” said Hamad

bin Mejren, executive direc-tor of Business Tourism, in Dubai.

Mejren confirmed that Dubai ranked first on premier tourist destinations list for Saudis. “More than 1,128,000 Saudis visited Dubai last year, a 28% increase from 2011”, he said.

Hello Dubai 2013 is the name of a new campaign to be launched by the tour-ism Department of Dubai and Emirates Airlines to promote the city as a global destination.

The campaign, which will run from April 15 to August 5, aims to increase awareness of Dubai as a

tourism destination.A total of 68 hotels will

participate and Emirates Air-lines will offer special rates during the period of the cam-paign, a statement said.

Some 650 tour operators and travel agents around the world have been invited to attend workshops of Hello Dubai 2013.

The revenue from tourism in Beijing hit a new high with more than 360 billion yuan ($57.86 billion) generated in 2012.

Total revenue was about 362.7 billion yuan, an increase of 12.8% from the previous year, with some 231 million visitors to the city, an annual increase of 8.1%.

Revenue from tour-ist shopping and dining accounted for 24.6% of the city’s social retail earnings for 2012.

Beijing also established the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) in Sep-tember last year, together with some 50 famous tour-ist cities such as Barcelona, Berlin, Los Angeles, Moscow and London.

Salman Khan to feature in Dubai tourism promotionSalman Khan, who is currently working in brother Sohail Khan’s film ‘Mental’ in Dubai, is the latest celeb to join the line of stars endorsing the interna-tional destination.

Bollywood and interna-tional tourism have had a long standing agreement, when a celebrity promotes a certain country, that country in return offers complete shooting rights for that particular celebrity’s film.

It is known that Salman Khan is in talks with concerned officials for that project. The project was announced last year and is called ‘Dubailand’.

Indonesia bidding for direct air routes to IndiaThe Indonesian govern-ment is stepping up efforts to launch direct air connectivity

between India and Indonesia that would facilitate greater Indian outbound traffic

to the archipelago.Both Lion Air and Air

Asia are understood to have approached the Indonesian government for approval of routes to India.

Speaking on the sidelines of OTM, where Indonesia is showcasing its destinations to the Indian travel market, Titik Wahyuni, head of pro-motion at the Ministry of Tourism & Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia, said, “The entry point to Indo-nesia is either Bali or Jakarta, but we are promoting des-tinations beyond these two. Wellness, marine and eco-tourism – these are the areas where we are pitching most with places like Kalimantan and Orangutan.

“The biggest problem we are facing is that there is no direct flight between India and Indonesia. We are trying hard to solve this problem by next year,” Wahyuni added.

Dubai, Emirates to launch global tourism push

Beijing tourism achieves new revenue heights in 2012

ASIA


Chinese tourists accounted for one third of the rise in international visitors to Aus-tralia in 2012 and half the increase in tourist spend-ing, according to the analy-sis of Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF).

TTF, the peak industry body for the Australian tour-ism and transport sector, said figures from the International

Visitor Survey (IVS) for the December quarter 2012 showed the number of visitors to Australia grew 5% in 2012, with expenditure by overseas tourists up 4%.

The IVS revealed that 592,000 Chinese tour-ists visited Australia in 2012, with their spending rising to AU$ 3.1 billion (US$ 3.2 billion) for the year.

Chinese tourists enhance Australian tourism growth

Australian tourism bosses are turning to multi-billion-dollar business events to lure more foreign tourists.

To achieve this, Tour-ism Australia has boosted its marketing to host events such as conventions and exhibitions by 34%, Federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said.

The latest figures show

15% of total tourism spending in Australia is a direct result of business events.

One in seven of Austra-lia’s international visitors

last year came to attend such an event, up 8% on the previ-ous year.

Australia hoping to attract more business tourists

New video platform to boost Sydney tourism

Travellers can now experience the amazing world of Sydney without leaving home, with Destination NSW’s new 360 digital videos. New South Wales (NSW) is the agency responsible for tourism sec-tors of Sydney and New South Wales.

Launched recently, the marketing initiative allows travellers to participate in

iconic Sydney experiences by logging onto Sydney.com/syd-ney 360, upload their face onto a picture and then explore the city with 360 views maneu-vered by the user.

Fully interactive aerial experiences include surfing at Bondi, climbing the Har-bour Bridge, kayaking Syd-ney Harbour and feeding ani-mals at Taronga Zoo.

Australia develops strategy to double Indian tourist arrivals

Australia has developed a long term strategy to double the number of visitors from India by 2020. The year 2012 recorded a jump of 7.4% in visitors from India with total number of Indians visiting Australia recorded at 159,200.

“India has been identi-fied as a key market in help-ing Australia to achieve its Tourism 2020 goal of increas-ing the income generated by tourism to as much as $140 billion by the end of the decade,” Tourism Australia’s

Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said. “Long term visitor numbers from India to Australia are estimated to reach up to 300,000 and potentially generate as much as AU$ 2.3 billion annually by 2020.”

Tourism Australia and Sin-gapore Airlines have joined hands on a national adver-tising campaign encourag-ing British holidaymakers to experience key destinations in Australia.

The UK-wide cam-paign, which was aired from

February 7 to March 7, 2013, used Tourism Australia’s ‘There’s nothing like Australia’ global creative and included multi-channel TV and online advertising.

The TV advertisement was a 30-second spot that reached 71% of the targeted

leisure audience.The film highlighted why

there’s nothing like an Aus-tralian holiday and show-cased the multi award-win-ning service that comes with flying in the highest quality, comfort and style onboard Singapore Airlines.

Tourism australia and Singapore airlines launch joint ad campaign

OCEANIA


ITB Berlin provides significant impetus for growth

Turkish Airlines, one of the leading European airlines, will be flying between Istanbul and Malta three times a week this summer.

Turkish Airlines spokes-man, Muhammed Soner Aydin, said, “In terms of des-tination countries, Turkish Airlines is the world’s num-ber one airline. We believe this operation will make an easy way to reach both Turkey and Malta for passengers.”

Malta Tourism Minister Mario de Marco welcomed the news and said the gov-ernment was investing in an effective tourism strategy that focused on investment in tour-ism products, effective promo-tion and accessibility.

UK eyes tourism push with Emirates dealVisitBritain, the UK’s national tourism body, is gearing up to launch a marketing campaign to increase the number of tourists from the United Arab Emirates by 30% within seven years.

About 250,000 UAE res-idents visit the country each year, but the UK wants to see that number increase to more than 300,000 by 2020.

A delegation from VisitBri-tain and British tourism oper-ators travelled to Abu Dhabi recently in a bid to attract tourists.

VisitBritain is also hoping

to enter a marketing deal with Dubai’s Emirates Airline to help boost the country’s pro-file as a tourism destination, as well as to promote areas

outside of London.“We do plan to step up

our activity in the region,” VisitBritain CEO Sandie Dawe said.

The OTM team was in full force at ITB Berlin, led by Sanjiv Agarwal, Chairman and CEO. The team had excellent meetings with a wide cross-section of NTOs and global travel trade, eliciting enthusiastic response for OTM 2014 and reflecting the continuing success story of India Outbound, as well as the heightened interest in OTM following the shift to a complete B2B focus from next year.

Turkish Airlines to launch new route to Malta

EuROPE

ITB Berlin 2013 was undoubt-edly the world’s largest meet-ing place of international tourism policy decision-makers and business leaders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Indonesian Presi-dent Susilo Bambang Yud-hoyono, representatives of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and the World Travel & Tour-ism Council (WTTC), as well as more than 100 ministers of tourism and state secretaries, met in Berlin to help shape the future for growth in the tour-ism industry.

From 6 to 10 March 2013, 10,086 exhibitors from 188 countries presented their products and services in display halls that were fully booked up. Overall, some 110,000 trade visitors came to Berlin, of whom 43%were from abroad. This year there was a slight increase in buy-ers from the U.S. and the Middle East. A poll among visitors revealed that one in three intended to book a trip.

The participation of Indonesia, this year’s part-ner country, at ITB Ber-lin 2013 was spectacular and featured more than 300 dancers, musicians and

performing artists from Kali-mantan, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Papua, Jakarta and Java. Besides showcasing its nat-ural wonders, the world’s largest archipelago shined the spotlight on seven other aspects of the country: cul-ture and traditions, nature and eco-tourism, leisure sports, cruises, gastronomy and shopping, spas, wellness and MICE events.

“Once again, ITB Berlin has kicked off the travel season around the globe. No other place in the world gathers so many leading

representatives from the private and public sector. This is where the tone is set for the future of travel for a billion people. The increase in

international buyers is proof that ITB Berlin continues to be the most important marketplace for the global travel industry.”

Dr christian GökeCOO, Messe Berlin

OTM at ITB Berlin

Sanjiv Agarwal, Chairman & CEO of OTM with Nayef H. Al-fayez, Minister of Tourism & Antiquities

and Minister of Environment, Jordan

Al-Zubaid Mahmood, Director General and Eng. Muhaen S Sultan, General Manager, Tourist Utilities

Directorate, Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities, Govt of Iraq with Sanjiv Agarwal, Chairman & CEO of OTM

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | maRcH 2013 19EuROPE

Scotland is to introduce a new tourist trail dedicated to Macbeth that aims to boost the fortunes of Scotland’s tourist industry.

Alex Johnstone, who repre-sents Northeast Scotland, plans to devise a route for motorists in the region that will be ded-icated to Shakespeare’s infa-mous villain.

“Many people do not realise that Macbeth existed. Apart from boosting tourism, I would

also hope that Macbeth trail would put some facts behind the myths about Macbeth and get people to identify with that part of Scotland’s history on the ground,” Johnstone said.

The proposed trail is expected to include sites such as Lumphanan, a village in Aberdeenshire where Macbeth was killed in battle in 1057, and Cairn O’Mount, where he took his supporters en route to his defeat.

Macbeth trail to strengthen the fortunes of Scotland’s tourism industry

The number of Indian tour-ists coming to Russia is on the rise. Irina Tyurina, Spokes-person for the Russian Union of Travel Industry, said the inflow of Indian tourists to Russia more than trebled in 2008-2012.

According to Tyurina, India is a very promising market for Russia. Around 12 million Indians holiday abroad every year and most of them visit Russia on their way to Europe.

During the recent OTM in Mumbai, representatives of Russian tour operators noted the interest shown by their

Indian counterparts in tours of Russian regions and pack-age tours to Western Europe stopping off in Russia and Central Asia.

Turkey seeks more flights from India to boost tourismTurkey is hoping to double the number of flights from Delhi and Mumbai to boost tourism and enhance trade and invest-ments relations.

“We want to double the fre-quency of flights from Delhi and Mumbai. We also want to start flights to more Indian des-tinations. It will help in boost-ing tourism in both countries,” Ambassador of Turkey to India Burak Akcapar said.

At present, a total of seven flights from Mumbai and Delhi connect India to Turkey.

“We have completed all the procedures from our side [to increase flight frequency].

Now the ball is in India’s court,” he added.

Russia prepares for more Indian tourists

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Tourism authorities in Portu-gal are capitalising on a recent surfing record that was set in the nation to boost tourism.

Portugal took the oppor-tunity to promote its beaches when Hawaiian extreme surfer, Garrett McNamara, broke a world record this week by catching an esti-mated 100-foot wave off the Portuguese fishing village of Nazare.

Tourism officials are work-ing overtime to attract more tourism for surfing and boost-ing the water tourism for the country.

Portugal’s tourism office said, “We have 450 miles of clean Atlantic coastline and

some surfing beaches that are out of this world.”

Portugal to capitalise on surf record

Ireland launches new tourism websiteTourism Ireland has announced the launch of its new international web-site to promote tourism to the country.

The website, rolling out in 30 markets around the world is available in 12 differ-ent languages including Ger-man, Spanish, Italian, Brazil-ian, Arabic, Russian, Chinese

and Japanese.The new website is known

to provide comprehensive information on all that Ire-land has to offer potential holidaymakers from around the world.

It has been redeveloped to offer more than 1,700 images, less crowded pages and increased ease of navigation.

Italy’s inbound tourist arrival numbers remain robustItaly was ranked fifth by the United Nations World Tour-ism Organisation (UNWTO) in terms of inbound tourist arrivals and international tour-ist receipts. While the coun-try witnessed a slow decline in domestic tourism in 2011, inbound tourism continued to boom.

Inbound tourism growth remained strong through the 2008 financial crisis and has remained robust even through the current debt crisis faced by the country, a testimony to Ita-ly’s popularity among interna-tional travellers.

The largest source countries for inbound tourism in 2011 were Switzerland, Germany and France.

The tourism ministry in Cyprus has kick-started an aggressive drive to promote Cyprus as a preferred tourist destination for Germans, with the expecta-tion of also promoting the island as a business centre in order to attract big investors.

Minister of Tourism in Cyprus George Lakkotrypis, along with Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) officials, was in Berlin for a series of con-tacts with representatives of air-line companies and major tour operators.

The contacts were signed on the sidelines of the ITB, the International Travel Trade Show in Berlin.

According to the official press release from the country, the outcome of several meet-ings confirms German interest

in tourism in Cyprus as well as intense cooperation between various institutions of the two countries.

Cyprus, the press release notes, is an “interesting

destination for German tour-ists, since besides the good weather, it offers safety, hospi-tality, culture, excellent cuisine and a number of thematic forms of tourism.”

Cyprus hopes to boost tourism from Germany

Switzerland woos Indian tourists

Azerbaijan to foster tourism products reflecting flavor of the regionThe Ministry of Culture & Tourism in Azerbaijan has stepped up efforts to initiate the development of new tour-ism products.

Deputy Culture & Tour-ism Minister Nazim Samedov emphasised that now the tour-ism sector needs training of professional personnel to ren-der quality services at tourism facilities across the country.

“The regional departments of culture & tourism should work together to create new tourism products, reflecting the colour of a given region,

conduct various festivals and cultural events in regions, capable to attract tourists,” the deputy minister said.

EuROPE

Switzerland is already a highly popular shooting location for Hindi films and is now con-centrating on increasing tour-ist inflow from India.

“India is presently one of the top 12 tourism traf-fic sources for Switzerland,” Ritu Sharma, deputy direc-tor, Switzerland Tourism India, said.

“Though the largest volume

of tourists still is domestic, and from other European countries, India is fast becom-ing an important source mar-ket for us,” Sharma added.

The nature of tourism from India to Switzerland is chang-ing fast, Sharma said, adding that a predominant focus is on youth tourists and MICE (meetings, incentives, confer-encing, and exhibitions).


Turkish Airlines, the national carrier of Turkey, announced its 2013 promotional campaigns at a meeting with Doha’s travel industry professionals. The air-line, one of the world’s fastest

growing with a massive 217-city global network, is planning huge expansion this year.

The meeting was attended by travel agents who were pre-sented an overview of Turkey’s

destination highlights, com-petitive fares and the airline’s upcoming campaigns for Istan-bul Shopping Festival in June and Ramadan in Istanbul Festival.

“We are delighted to launch promotions that allow our cus-tomers to benefit from our award-winning service at the most competitive prices cur-rently available out of Doha, providing local agents incred-ible value for their clientele,” Mehmed Kursad Caymaz, Gen-eral Manager for Turkish Air-lines in Qatar, said. “We are encouraging our customers to take advantage of the latest offer to discover the magic of Istan-bul, the city’s fascinating sites, exquisite cuisine, boutiques and international shopping, with a free night’s stopover on their next flight from Doha.”

Turkish Airlines unveils promotional plans at Doha meet

Tourism committee to double domestic ads for MoscowThe Moscow Tourism Committee is to double investment in promoting Moscow as an attractive tourist destination in the Russian regions. Ads are to be placed in 25 major cities, including St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Tyumen and others.

Tourism officials plan to increase advertising from 200 to 400 billboards following the success of previ-ous campaigns.

Moreover, the campaign will be executed twice a year – in March-April, in time for the May holidays, and in October-November, for New Year’s travel.

Turkey earned tourism rev-enues estimated at $23.4 bil-lion in 2012, recording a mar-ginal 1.8% increase compared to the same period last year, Turkish Statistical Institu-tion data reveals. Turkey has become a preferred destina-tion as the number of tour-ists visiting the country, par-ticularly from Arab regions,

has dramatically increased in recent years.

Revenues have surged due to a sharp increase in tour-ists as well as their average expenditure, which rose to $795 per person last year. Tur-key obtained 77.9 % of tourism income from foreign visitors and 22.1% from Turkish citi-zens residing abroad.

French President François Hol-lande has expressed optimism on greater commercial coop-eration with the UAE across a number of sectors includ-ing renewable energy, defence, transportation and tourism.

The two countries are com-mitted to enhancing travel and trade between them by 50% in the coming five years, doubling

the flow of tourists as well as initiating joint development projects in other countries.

“We have talked with the president of the federation, Sheikh Khalifa [the President], and the prime minister on all subjects – tourism, defense, economic, investment,” Hol-lande said during his visit to Dubai.

Germany sees record number of tourists in 2012Germany has witnessed a renewed boom in tourism over the past 12 months. According to statistics from the Federal Statistical Office, overnight stays by international visitors in accommodation establish-ments with more than 10 beds totalled 64.2 million in the first 11 months of 2012.

This is estimated to be an increase of 8.1% compared with the same period of 2011.

The German National Tour-ist Board (DZT) attributed

the success to a favourable value-for-money ratio and a

diverse range of experiences on offer.

UK aims to increase tourism from Russia 75% over seven years

Britain recently announced its aim to attract growing number of visitors from Russia.

The country expects that within seven years, the figure will be 75% higher than it was in 2011, said the British Tour-ist Authority, also known as VisitBritain.

“It’s our ambition to

welcome 370,000 Russian visitors a year by 2020,” said Patricia Yates, the agen-cy’s director of strategy and communications.

“In 2011, we saw a promising 24% increase in the number of Russian visitors. That growth has continued into 2012,” Yates said.

VisitBritain said that com-pared with the average tour-ist, Russians are more likely to visit museums, galleries, theatres and concerts.

“Over 210,000 Russians visited Britain in 2011, spend-ing an average £1,450 per visit, nearly triple the average global spends,” the agency said.

France pushes for stronger tourism ties with UAE

Turkey’s tourism income surges to $23.4 billion

EuROPE


The Latin American leisure industry showcased its exotic destinations focused on the European market to the inter-national travel trade at the International Tourism Bourse (ITB) at Berlin by its strong presence.

Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and

Nicaragua, along with Pan-ama and Belize offered a diver-sified and attractive overview of the region for the thousands attending this show.

The Costa Rican Minister of Tourism, Allan Flores, told the media that the world cri-sis is a fact and translates into shorter stays for travellers,

but either way the country can boast of a 6.9% increase in vis-itors over last year’s figures.

Costa Rica, whic is strong in eco-tourism, received 1.7 million visitors in 2012, mostly from the United States, Mexico and Canada, followed by South American travellers.

Latin American tourism on display at ITB Berlin

San Francisco airport records highest ever passenger trafficSan Francisco International Airport (SFO) announced an all-time record for passenger traffic in 2012, with a total of 44.5 million passengers trav-elling through SFO.

This breaks the previ-ous record of 41 million pas-senger set in 2011, and rep-resents an 8.5% increase in traffic year-over-year. SFO continued to be a vital source for job creation and contri-bution to local economies. The airport generated a total of 29,555 direct jobs and $1.7 billion in personal income. It

also generated $469 million in state and local taxes.

Construction projects launched during 2012 con-tinue to add jobs to the area.

SFO offers a wide variety of travel options to passen-gers, 30 international carri-ers serving 31 international points, as well as 15 domestic airlines offering nonstop ser-vice to 74 cities in the U.S. In the Bay Area, SFO accounts for two-thirds of all domestic flight activity, and continues to serve as the primary inter-national gateway.

India and Canada have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the tourism sector by identify-ing areas to work together and explore new opportunities.

The decision for mutual cooperation was arrived at a meeting between Indian Union Minister of State for Tourism K Chiranjeevi and Canadian Minister for Tourism Maxime Bernier.

It was decided by the two ministers that the coun-tries would explore areas for cooperation especially in the field of human resource

development, the exchange of tour operators, invest-ment in the tourism sector and exchange of informa-tion related to the tourism industry.

The possibility of signing an agreement/MoU between India and Canada was also discussed.

It was also agreed that tour operators and travel agents of both the countries will interact with each other in order to facilitate tourism opportunities between India and Canada.

California woos Chinese tourists with new marketing campaignWith a $1.6 million marketing campaign, California is eyeing another surge in Chinese tour-ists this year.

“We have seen double-digit growth from China year over year, and the number of Chinese visitors to California is expected to increase 113% between 2011 and 2015,” said Caroline Beteta,

CEO of Visit California, a non-profit group that handles mar-keting for the state’s Travel and Tourism Commission.

“Visit California will be investing an additional $1 mil-lion in new direct-to-consumer advertising, bringing its total China marketing budget to $1.6 million,” she said.

Peru to exceed target of 3 million tourists in 2013

Peru should surpass this year its foreign tourist target of three million, stated the Peruvian Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism Jose Luis Silva. He also said American Airlines will operate seven non-stop flights between Houston and Lima.

“We are talking about

70,000 to 80,000 extra pas-sengers a year on the route Houston-Lima, repre-senting a 3% addition to the total tourists coming,” he said.

Silva noted that by 2016, the government expects more than 3,600,000 foreign visi-tors to arrive to Peru.

The U.S. continues to be a preferred destination for high-spending tour-ists, setting a new record of $168.1 billion in foreign visitors’ spending in 2012.

The country last year welcomed 66 million foreign visitors, whose spending represents a 10% increase over 2011, said Rebecca Blank, dep-uty secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The greatest increase in visitors and spending came from countries with a growing middle class, including China, Brazil and India.

Canada, India to boost cooperation in tourism sector

Foreign tourist spending in U.S. sets new record

AMERICAS

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | maRcH 2013 23AMERICAS

Tourism authorities in Las Vegas revealed that the city welcomed a record number of gamblers, clubbers and con-vention-goers in 2012.

The Las Vegas Conven-tion and Visitors Authority said that 39.7 million visitors toured the city last year. That’s 800,000 more guests than 2011,

and a half-million more than the previous high, set in 2007.

The Visitors Authority cal-culated that the flood of tour-ists contributed $40 billion into the local economy. The author-ity highlighted the resurgent convention industry as one of the factors driving the surge in visitors.

In a bid to produce advertis-ing and special interest con-tent for sports fans across the UK and Europe, ESPN has inked a deal with Brand USA, the tourism marketing body for the United States.

“Through this multifac-eted campaign we aim to inspire visitors to look at American sports and the

diverse and unique recre-ational tourism opportuni-ties available in the United States,” said Jay Gray, vice president of global partner-ship development at Brand USA.

“We are committed in our activities across Europe and in particular in the UK market, the largest overseas

visitor market to the United States,” he added.

The deal will strive to deliver specially produced branded online video and rich media features on each state, which focuses on sports and recreational tour-ism opportunities rooted in each state’s distinct sporting heritage.

Las Vegas tourism had its best year ever in 2012

colorado opens door to marijuana tourismMarijuana tourism is the recent buzzword in Colorado tourism industry.

The task force forming regula-tions to govern the marijuana law recommended that state legislators shouldn’t require those purchasing cannabis to be residents.

The task force suggested that tourists should be able to purchase only small amounts of marijuana and stressed on putting up notices at stores and airports warning trav-ellers not to take marijuana out of the state.

Delaware promotes exotic cuisine through culinary TrailIn a new initiative to promote Dela-ware’s exotic cuisine to foreign tour-ists, the state’s tourism office is launch-ing the ‘Delaware Culinary Trail,’ a road map to a group of two dozen of the state’s most iconic restaurants.

The tourism office says anyone who visits 15 of the 24 restaurants can request a free cookbook with recipes from the trail’s restaurants. The ‘First State Plates’ cookbook is also being sold for $25.

The most challenging part of build-ing the trail was narrowing the field down to 24, which was done with an eye towards representing a diver-sity of culinary styles and geogra-phy, said Linda Parkowski, Delaware Tourism director.

“The restaurants we chose pro-vide an accurate representation of the tastes and traditions of the First State,” Parkowski said. “It’s real people making real food from local favorites like crabs, scrap-ple and signature pizza to dishes at fine-dining establishments on par with those found in nearby big cities.”

Brand uSA & ESPN to promote u.S. tourism throughout Europe


connecticut honoured for tourism campaign

Connecticut’s innovative tourism campaign has been awarded by an international marketing group.

Connecticut was hon-oured three Adrian Awards for its brand campaign, ‘Still Revolutionary’ by the Hos-pitality, Sales and Market-ing Association International (HSMAI). Adrian Awards rec-ognise excellence in advertis-ing, public relations and digital marketing specifically tailored for the hospitality, travel and

tourism industries.The ads have been predom-

inantly targeted at the New York market.

“We are honoured that the Adrian Awards recognised the value of our new brand. And we’re thrilled that results from our ad tracking study demon-strate that the still revolution-ary campaign is working and inspiring people to visit the state of Connecticut,” said Randy Fiveash, Director of Tourism, State of Connecticut.

Culture continues to drive tour-ism in the Canadian province of Ontario, a report commis-sioned by Ontario Arts Coun-cil (OAC) reveals.

The report, prepared by Research Resolutions & Con-sulting Ltd, found that nearly

a quarter (22%) of the 9.5 mil-lion tourists to Ontario in 2010 participated in arts and culture activities.

It also revealed that 39% of all overnight visitors from the U.S. in 2010 visited a cultural attraction, while for overseas

visitors, that number increased to 63%.

The economic impact of tourist spending on arts and culture amounted to $3.7 bil-lion in GDP, which translates into 67,000 jobs and $1.7 billion in taxes across the province.

Culture continues to drive Ontario tourismLos angeles enjoys bumper tourism year

Quebec travel agency to send tourists into space

Los Angeles witnessed a 2.5% increase in visitor arrivals in 2012 as 41.4 million people flocked to the sunny Califor-nian city.

This is a welcome devel-opment for the $16.5 billion tourism industry, which sup-ports 372,000 jobs locally.

As a result of this increase in numbers, hotel occu-pancy in Los Angeles set a new record of 75.4% in 2012,

beating the previous best of 75.1% set in 2006.

“I think there is a real buzz about Los Angeles especially internationally,” outgoing president and chief executive of the tourism board Mark Liberman told the media.

Top attractions to enjoy in the City of Angels include Hollywood, Los Angeles-area shopping centres and malls and Beverly Hills.

Canadians enthusiastic about becoming space tour-ists now have another option.

Space Expedition Corp. and Xcor Aerospace have inked a deal with Quebec travel agency Uniktour to offer suborbital flights in the Quebec market.

Uniktour president Philippe Bergeron will be the first Canadian to experi-ence a suborbital flight this December.

He will travel in the Lynx Mark 1 space plane, which is still undergoing tests.

AMERICAS

Colorado sees massive return from tourism ad campaignThe Colorado Tourism Office’s $5.4 million campaign designed to attract visitors to Colorado has delivered stunning results.

The ‘Come to Life’ print and television campaign, which appeared in April, May and August, 2012 was responsible for generating $898 million in spending by tourists in the state.

“Any campaign is a combina-tion of ad creative and in-mar-ket execution, and the combi-nation really paid off big time for us,” said Al White, director of the state’s tourism office. “It was really dramatic to see what happened.”

Brazil has created new bench-mark of tourist hospitality with two dimensional bar codes installed in the mosaic side-walks of Rio de Janeiro that will help tourists to find their desti-nation and learn about the city.

Visitors need to down-load an app to a smartphone or tablet and photograph the icon. The app then reads the code and takes them to a web site with detailed informa-tion in Portuguese, Spanish or

English, and a map.“If you add the number of

Brazilian tourists, this tool has a great potential to be use-ful,” said Marcos Correa Bento, head of the city’s Conservation and Public Works.

Brazil Tourism goes high tech with bar codes

Tourism Authority of Thailand New Delhi Office: (Areas of Responsibility: Northern and Eastern India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal),Tel: 91-11-41663567-69, 46741111, Fax: 91-11-41663570 | E-mail: [email protected] | www.facebook.com/tat.newdelhiTourism Authority of Thailand Mumbai Office: (Areas of Responsibility: Western and Southern India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives),Tel: 91-22-22042727-28, Fax: 91-22-22042729 | E-mail: [email protected] | Website: www.tourismthailand.org Visit: http://www.facebook.com/TourismAuthorityofThailandIndia

Blissful Phuket

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | maRcH 2013 ⋅ 26CARIBBEAN

Sport fishing could become a major new attraction for the Brit-ish Virgin Islands (BVI), accord-ing to BVI Film Commissioner Rhodni Skelton.

Sport fishing is a revenue generating sport that stands among the most expensive in

leisure activities.“The amount of money per

day a sport fisher will spend on vacation dwarfs what the aver-age tourist will pay to enjoy the same location. Many sport fish-ers are extremely affluent,” said William Boyce who is making a

documentary on sport fishing in the area.

“I would rate the BVI as potentially the best-kept secret in the Caribbean,” he said. “I want to get the word out and change that secret to the best fishing des-tination in the Caribbean.”

British Virgin Islands bank on sport fishing to attract tourists

Jamaica tourist arrival hits new recordVisitor arrivals to Jamaica by air and sea hit a new record of 3.3 million in 2012, up 7.4% from the previous year, accord-ing to newly released tourism data.

Arrivals in 2011 amounted to 3.07 million. Tourist vis-its earlier hit the three million mark in 2006.

The increase in tour-ist numbers predominantly

came from cruise passenger growth, up 17%, mainly due to the newly opened port in Tre-lawny, the Falmouth Cruise Pier, built over a year ago. Total visitors by sea amounted to 1.34 million.

Air passengers staying overnight or stopover arrivals increased marginally by 1.8% to 1.98 million.

Total tourist arrivals to the Bahamas are expected to increase by 5%-6% in 2013, taking gross visitor num-bers to more than 6 million.

“I think we’re looking at a 5-6% increase this year; that’s what we’re projecting,

at least for the first half,” Gary Young, the Ministry of Tourism’s senior director of research and statistics, said.

“Things are looking better in the U.S. econ-omy, so that’s a good sign,” he added.

Nevis Premier Vance Amory has appointed Mark Brantley as the island’s new Tourism Minister.

Brantley’s portfolios will also include health, social development, youth and sports, culture and gender affairs.

While making the

appointment the Premier said, “We are at a critical moment in the development of Nevis’ tourism and we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy to take advantage of the market opportunities ahead.

“I am honoured and excited to lead Nevis’ tourism indus-try, which is vitally impor-tant to the people of Nevis and to the economy of our small island destination,” Minister Brantley stated.

Caribbean shows signs of massive tourism reboundThe number of people travel-ling to the Caribbean is bounc-ing back to pre-recession lev-els, with visitors from Canada and the U.S. giving a boost to a region struggling to recover from a global economic crisis, a top tourism official said.

About 25 million tourists

visited the Caribbean last year, a more than 5% increase from 2011. It’s a growth rate that out-paced the rest of the world, which saw arrivals increase by 4%, said Beverly Nicholson-Doty, chairperson of the Barba-dos-based Caribbean Tourism Organisation.

“All the signs suggest Carib-bean tourism is rallying,” said Nicholson-Doty. “The region as a whole has regained ground lost in the heat of the global eco-nomic depression.”

The Caribbean also saw its largest number of stayover visitors in five years, with the region’s overall hotel occu-pancy increasing by more than 7% and total room revenues up by nearly 9%.

And tourists spent big while visiting the Caribbean last year, shelling out more than $27 bil-lion, a more than 3% increase from 2011. The numbers mark a return to pre-recession levels, Nicholson-Doty said.

The U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands fared the best, reporting a nearly 7% jump in tourists. From Jan-uary to August last year alone, more than 1.1 million people vis-ited Puerto Rico, mostly from the U.S. mainland.

Caribbean tourism organisation announces 2013 scholarshipsCaribbean nationals aspiring to study tourism or hospital-ity and language training are being offered the opportunity to secure scholarships from the Caribbean Tourism Organisa-tion (CTO).

The region’s tourism devel-opment agency, through its scholarship programme, the CTO Foundation, is awarding scholarships of up to $12,000 to individuals wanting to study tourism or hospitality at the post graduate level, and language training for persons already working in the tourism sector.

In addition, the CTO Foun-dation is offering study grants of up to $2,500 to individuals purs-ing tourism/hospitality studies

at the certificate, diploma, asso-ciate degree or first degree level. Studies can be pursued both within and outside the Carib-bean region.

“The Foundation selects individuals who demonstrate high levels of achievement and

leadership both within and outside the classroom and who express a strong interest in making a positive contribution to Caribbean tourism,” said

Bonita Morgan, CTO’s direc-tor of regional human resource development.

Bahamas targeting 5-6% tourist growth in 2013

Nevis appoints new minister of tourism


Grenada is investing a $375,000 grant from CART fund to expand and develop the country’s marine and yachting industry.

“Grenada as a yachting des-tination is one of the best kept secrets of the Caribbean, and

it is time for the secret to be revealed,” explained Anita Sutton, President of Grena-da’s Marine and Yachting Association (MAYAG). “Gre-nada Grenadines Yachting is the brand identity that will be used to promote the island’s

yachting industry,” added Sutton.

Grenada is focusing on var-ious improvements to this sec-tor. These include the training and certification of its yacht maintenance and technical staff, a security protocol to ensure that Grenada remains the Caribbean’s safest yacht-ing destination, and steps to streamline the clearance requirements for yachts trav-elling between Grenada and St. Vincent.

Grenada develops yachting industry

Tourism continues to grow in the Dominican RepublicThe Dominican Republican witnessed a high influx of vis-itors to the country last year. The arrival of international visitors to the Dominican Republic through the coun-try’s seven international air-ports grew by 5.9% in 2012. The country’s seven interna-tional airports received 3.9

million visitors, compared to 3.7 million in 2011. Some 55% of the international visitors were from North America.

Till now, the United States is the largest supplier of inter-national tourists to the Domin-ican Republic. Europe came in second, with 28% of the overall number of visitors.

Haiti’s Prime Minister explained that his country is hoping to attract high-end tourists and multinational investors so that it can boost the country’s financial state after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Prime Minister Lau-rent Lamothe accepted that it is an ambitious dream for a country where 52% of the people live below the

poverty line and where infrastructure is desperately lacking.

Haiti Tourism Minis-ter Stephanie Villedrouin recently unveiled a series of priority projects intended to boost tourism in 2013. She also shared plans to start rebranding Haiti’s tour-ism image. The island intro-duced a new logo and ad campaign—‘Experience It.’

In a new move Caribbean nations such as Bahamas are stepping up efforts to increase their share of the $40-$60 billion global health and wellness industry. The region’s Spa Association is leading the effort by aiming to increase the sector’s visi-tor arrivals and revenues by as much as 10% by 2015.

The global health and wellness industry is a $40 billion international mar-ket, growing at 30% per year, according to a Com-monwealth Secretariat study, which also estimated

the Caribbean’s potential for generating export earn-ings from this sector at $175 million.

antigua and Barbuda sets up tourism safety task forceAntigua and Barbuda has established a Tourism Task Force focusing on visitor safety, the government announced recently.

The force is the result of cooperation between the Min-istry of National Security and the Ministry of Tourism.

“Antigua & Barbuda is a tourist reliant economy and therefore, we have to be mind-ful of any criminal activity that is aimed at tourists,” said Min-ister of National Security Dr Errol Cort. “While we have been very fortunate in this country to have minimum criminal activity directed at tourists, we want to ensure that such activities are at a zero level.”

Jamaican tourism minister endorses Rastafarian Indigenous VillageJamaica’s Tourism and Enter-tainment Minister, Dr Wyke-ham McNeill has given his backing to the Rastafarian

Indigenous Village in Jamai-ca’s Portobello saying “it is a very good community-based tourism project which is

poised to bring tremendous benefits to Jamaica.”

The project, located in St James, is being funded by the Jamaica Social Invest-ment Fund’s Rural Economic Development Initiative to the tune of a little over $194,000.

“A lot of elements which go together to make up the Jamaican culture and heri-tage, including the Rastafar-ian culture, are present here at the village, and I believe this is a good project that seeks to attract visitors who would be interested in our culture,” McNeill said in a government release.

The Rastafarian Village project is 95% complete. The property includes a wellness centre and healing garden, a Solomonic Mall, herbal phar-macy, a restaurant and other components.

Haiti hopes high on tourism

Caribbean targets greater wellness tourism share

CARIBBEAN


South African Tourism has launched a 21-city outdoor advertising campaign to woo Indian tourists to the enchant-ing and rich experiential offer-ings of South Africa. The cam-paign ‘The More You Do, The Closer You Get’ highlights the diversity of experiences offered by South Africa to Indian trav-ellers and assures them of a holiday filled with unforget-table memories, activities and opportunities to grow closer to fellow travellers be it family, friends, colleagues or spouse.

The campaign aims to stim-ulate the curiosity and inter-est levels of Indian travellers by showcasing not only South Africa’s popular destinations, but also attempts to capture the overwhelming experiences and infinite opportunities that the Rainbow Nation has to offer.

Targeted at travel enthusi-asts across diverse age groups and interests, South African Tourism has rolled out the advertising campaign across

426 out-of-home units in India. The campaign will be adver-tised extensively through bill-boards, bus shelters, gantry, cantilever, unipole, translites, wall graphics, glow cubes, glass facades, buses, mobile van kiosk, utility pole, pillar & scroller, over a period of one month.

The campaign attempts to create a strong and lasting

imagery of South Africa and its fun-filled offerings in the minds of people. Therefore, South African Tourism has brought in an element of inno-vation by depicting various exciting activities on the bill-boards; such as a dummy bungee jump from a billboard and the majestic moves of an African lion on an outdoor hoarding.

SA tourism launches new ad campaign

Zimbabwe: Tourism ministry in drive to raise $90m

Zimbabwe Tourism and Hos-pitality Industry Minister Wal-ter Mzembi recently explained that his ministry was leading an aggressive drive to raise $90 million to upgrade hotel infra-structure and refurbish the tourism facility of the country.

Minister Mzembi said the government, through his

ministry, was facilitating the fund-raising in and outside Zimbabwe.

“We are on the market, within and outside the coun-try. We are looking at fund-raising $90 million. That has been our target for the last one year or so, to land $90 million in our account,” he said.

Tanzania to expand tourism policeTanzania’s police force is tak-ing significant steps to add at least 240 more police officers to the country’s 60-member

tourism police force, Assistant Police Commissioner Benedict Kitalika announced recently.

“Currently we are sourcing

funds that will enable us to train at least 240 police officers and inculcate in them skills on how to record a statement which could be used in court even in the absence of a tourist,” he said.

Kitalika, who leads the unit, estimated that $49,000 is needed for the training, which would include foreign language courses.

Tanzania’s tourism industry accounts for an estimated 17.5% of Tanzania’s gross domestic product and employs 500,000 direct and 800,000 indirect employees.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) is stepping up efforts to tap niche segments like weddings and honeymooners as part of its strategy to increase tourist numbers from emerging mar-kets like India. KTB will pro-mote beach destinations on the South and North Coast to target these segments.

John Chirchir, Regional Marketing Manager, Emerg-ing Markets, KTB, explained that by targeting these niche segments the Tourism Board also wants to highlight prod-ucts and destinations beyond wildlife safaris.

“Diani on the South Coast and Watamu on the North-ern Coast are beautiful beach destinations. Both Watamu

and Diani were voted by CNN Travel as top 25 beach destina-tions in Africa,” he said.

He added that the Indian community in Kenya is capa-ble of designing Indian

weddings with all grandeur. About 64,000 Indians vis-ited Kenya last year, and KTB expects to achieve one lakh inbound from India in the next three years.

Kenya Tourism lures wedding, honeymoon segments in India

Tourists re-assured over new Egyptian alcohol restrictions

Tourism bodies in Egypt have been working to re-assure Western travellers that the recent decision by the new government in Egypt to restrict the sale of alcohol will not result in them having to endure ‘dry’ holidays in the Middle Eastern state.

The government of Mohamed Morsi which has

a strong Muslim ideology has announced that it will no longer issue licenses for the sale of alcohol in some particular areas.

But the Middle East and North Africa Travel Associ-ation has been keen to point out these restrictions do not apply to the country’s main tourist hotspots.

AFRICA

medical tourism upbeat in mauritiusA latest survey by the Board of Investment (BOI) in Mauritius estimated that the number of foreign patients who travelled to Mauritius for the purpose of treatment in 2012 was around 21,000.

An increasing number of such patients who come to Mauritius generally seek med-ical treatment in areas like car-diology, ophthalmology, ortho-paedics, cosmetic surgery and procedures and fertility treat-ments among others.

BOI said the govern-ment has always shown a

strong commitment to the development of the private healthcare sector.


Zambia to establish representation in IndiaZambia Tourism Board is on its way to seal a deal with Mumbai-based Blue Square Consultants for market repre-sentation in India.

The NTO (National Tourist Office) will raise awareness of

Zambia through advertising, roadshows and familiariza-tion trips for the media and trade. It is also looking at educating travel consultants through a tie-up with Kuoni Academy and an online

training programme.Apart from wildlife, the

country’s adventure products and UNESCO World Heritage Site Victoria Falls will also be promoted.

Mato Shimabale, direc-

tor marketing, Zambia Tour-ism Board, said: “I think it is the right time to open a representation office in this part of the world as Indian travellers are looking for new destinations.”

AFRICA

Zambia woos Indian touristsPositioning itself as the next tourism hotspot in Africa, Zambia is planning to woo Indian travellers.

According to Bwalya Lyapa Nondo, acting Deputy High Commissioner of Zam-bia in India, efforts are also on to have direct flights between India and Zambia in the near future. Delhi or Mumbai are likely to be the proba-ble Indian destinations for a

direct flight.“We want Indian travel-

lers to explore Zambia. It’s a place waiting to be explored,” Nondo said.

“There are two main rea-sons why Indians should con-sider us. We are a politically stable nation. There has been no war or political strife. It is safe and secure to travel,” said Mato Shimabale, Director of Zambia Tourism Board.

Egypt’s Tourism Minis-ter Hisham Zaazou is plan-ning to install live webcams in major tourist hotspots to prove the tourism in the country remains healthy.

Zaazou said cameras will broadcast live video of hol-iday-makers on the beach “basking in the sun”.

“When [tourists] see it,

they will come,” Zaazou said.Egypt’s ancient Pyra-

mids in Giza and the beaches of Sharm el-Sheikh have long helped the country generate tourism revenue, giving a vital boost to the Egyptian economy.

Livecams to show all is bright in Egypt

Tanzania is aiming to strengthen its international competitiveness and share of the world travel market by developing an innovative mar-keting strategy that it hopes will place the country’s hospi-tality sector in a better position.

The one-month-old com-prehensive strategy, whose implementation is being coor-dinated by Tanzania Tour-ist Board (TTB), is expected to accelerate Tanzania’s leap toward greater economic success.

“More tourist arrivals will lead to the strengthening and

expansion of the tourism and hospitality sector,” TCT (Tour-ism Confederation of Tanza-nia) chairman Gaudence K.

Temu, said. “Its growth in turn will boost other sectors – agri-culture, construction, educa-tion, aviation among others.”

South Africa has stepped up its marketing campaign across India, expecting a 10-15% growth in Indian tourist arriv-als for 2013.

According to the latest arrival figures, the country received 79,306 Indian tour-ists from January to Septem-ber in 2012, an increase of 18.3%

compared with the same period in 2011. “We expect the figures to cross over one lakh for the year 2012,” said Hanneli Slabber, Country Head of South African Tourism.

India stands among the top five tourism source markets for South Africa and therefore, there is a growing possibility to

concentrate on further develop-ing and exploring new opportu-nities in this market, she added.

South African Tourism has kick-started its annual road show in Mumbai which will travel to cities such as Hyderabad, Bangalore and New Delhi to showcase the destinations.

South African Tourism expects 10%-15% more Indian arrivals

Tourism revenues in Tuni-sia increased by 30% in 2012 compared to 2011, according to latest data released by the Department of Tourism in Tunisia.

However, figures remain 10% below their level before the revolution.

Revenues reached 3.17 bil-lion dinars (1.52 billion euros), up 30.4% compared to 2011. This rate is 9.9% below that of 2010.

The number of overnight stays in the country stood at nearly 30 million against 35.5 million in 2010 and 20.6 mil-lion in 2011.

Significantly Tunisia is seeking to attract some 10

million tourists by 2016 to gen-erate revenues of $6 billion.

Tunisia tourism revenues up by 30% in 2012

Tanzania plans aggressive tourism promotion drive

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | maRcH 2013 ⋅ 30EVENTS

Andhra Pradesh has received the award for all-round devel-opment of tourism in the National Tourism Awards 2011-12. Rajasthan and Gujarat won second and third awards in the category.

President Pranab Mukher-jee conferred the awards in the presence of Union Tour-ism Minister and film star K Chiranjeevi.

Hyderabad won the best civic management of a desti-nation category “A” city, while Warangal, also in Andhra Pradesh, won the best heritage city award.

Both awards for best airport — in the “tier-I cities” and “rest of India” categories —went to Andhra Pradesh. The Rajiv Gandhi International Air-port of Hyderabad was picked the “best airport” among the seven tier-1 cities. In the “rest of India” category, the award went to Visakhapatnam Air-port, which is controlled by the Indian Navy.

The award of excellence for best tourism promotion public-ity material went to Karnataka while the Mysore railway sta-tion won the “tourist-friendly railway station” award.

Best State/UT Comprehensive Develop-ment of Tourism (Rest of India)

- Andhra Pradesh (First Prize)- Rajasthan (Second Prize)- Gujarat (Third Prize)

Best State/UT Comprehensive Develop-ment of Tourism –(North East, Jammu and Kashmir )

- Jammu & Kashmir

Best Civic Management of a Destination Category ‘A’ City

- Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corpo-ration, Andhra Pradesh

Best Civic Management of a Destination Category ‘B’ City

- Municipal Council of Mandav (Mandu), District Dhar, Madhya Pradesh

Best Heritage City- Warangal City, Andhra Pradesh

Best Heritage Walk- Amritsar Heritage Walk (Joint Winner)- Delhi Heritage Walk (Joint Winner)

Excellence in Publishing – English- The Vibrant West and The Alluring

North By Hugh & Colleen Gantzer

Excellence in Publishing – Hindi- Bharat ke Hill Station- Raja Pocket

BooksAward of Excellence- Best Tourism Promo-tion Publicity Material (States and UT)

-Karnataka

Award of Excellence- Best Tourism Film- Gujarat Tourism for the “Khushboo

Gujarat Ki” Campaign film

Most Innovative use of Information Technology

- Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited- Arunachal Tourism (Special Prize)

Best Airport( Class X Cities)- Rajiv Gandhi International Airport,

Hyderabad

Best Airport (Rest of India)- Vishakhapatnam Airport,

Vishakhapatnam

Tourist Friendly Railway Station- Mysore Railway Station, Karnataka

Best Maintained and Disabled Friendly Monument

- Fatehpur Sikri Group of Monument, Agra

Best Responsible Tourism Project- Baramati Agri Tourism Research,

Training and Development Centre, Pune- Green Rider Project (Special award)

Best Rural Tourism Project- Rural Tourism project at Kumara-

kom, Kerala

Most Innovative and Unique Tourism Project

- Project – Air Taxi (Recommended Winner)

- Rajasthan – Relief Riders Programme (Special award)

Best Wellness Center- M/s Somatheeram Ayurvedic Hospital

& Yoga Centre, Kovalam, Kerala

Medical Tourism Facility –- Apollo Health City, Hyderabad

Best Tourism Friendly Golf Course- Royal Springs Golf Course, Srinagar

Best Overseas Tour Operator to India from UK

- M/s Cox and Kings, UK

Best Overseas Tour Operator to India from North America

- M/s Indus Travels, Canada

Best Overseas Tour Operator to India from Latin America

- M/s Raidho Tour Operator, Brazil

Best Overseas Tour Operator to India from Europe

- M/s Asia Voyages, Paris, France

Best Hotel (Five Star)-Vivanta By Taj- Ambassador, New Delhi

Best Hotel (Four Star)-Vivanta by Taj, Kumarakom, Kerala

Best Hotel (Three Star)- Gateway Hotel, Vadodara, Gujarat

Best Hotel (Two Star)- Resorte Marinha Dourada, Goa

Best Heritage hotel (Basic)- Samode Haveli, Gangapole, Jaipur,

Rajasthan

Best Heritage Hotel (Grand)- Savoy Hotel, Ooty

Best Eco Friendly Hotel- ITC Hotel, ITC Maurya, New Delhi

Hotel providing Best Facilities for the Differ-ently Abled Guests

- ITC Maurya, New Delhi

Chiranjeevi’s state bags top tourism awards

NATIONAL TOuRISM AWARDS 2011-2012

For the first time ever, FICCI held an interactive B2B con-clave on Film Tourism on March 15, 2013 at The Renais-sance, Mumbai.

‘Shoot at Site’ is a synergy of two long-running platforms that are definitive and unpar-alleled in their respective sec-tors – FICCI FRAMES, which has been running for the past 13 years, and The Great Indian Travel Bazaar, running since 2008.

The event aims to help stake-holders discover the benefits of shooting in India and partici-pating countries from across the globe with experts, decision makers and line producers.

Presentations and interac-tive panel discussions at the event highlighted rare shooting spots, production facilities and services and gave expert advice on how to navigate through and capitalise on benefits offered by various Indian states and inter-national tourism boards.

Partner States West Bengal Tourism, Maharashtra Tour-ism, Gujarat Tourism and Him-achal Pradesh Tourism took part in the presentations, dis-cussions and B2B meetings.

International tourism boards included in the pan-els and available for interac-tive discussions were Sin-gapore Tourism, Turkey

Tourism, Dubai Tourism, Ger-many Tourism and Australia Tourism.

The conference helped bring together the state governments from India and international tourist boards with film direc-tors, advertising experts, music video makers and still-photog-raphers for focused pre-sched-uled B2B meetings.

In another initiative to boost investment in the tourism infrastructure in India, FICCI in partnership with the Min-istry of Tourism, Government of India and the state govern-ments, organised the Con-clave on Investment in Tour-ism Infrastructure (CITI) on January 16 – 17, 2013 at FICCI, New Delhi.

Dr. Amit Mitra, Hon’ble Finance Minister, Govern-ment of West Bengal was the Guest of Honour. Other dig-nitaries who graced the inau-gural were Usha Sharma, Addl. Director General, Min-istry of Tourism, Government of India, Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer & Manag-ing Director, Delhi - Mumbai Industrial Corridor Develop-ment Corporation and Alkesh Patel, Chairman, Asian Amer-ican Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA). Dr. Arbind Prasad, Director General of FICCI gave the welcome address. The

inaugural session was mod-erated by Rahul Chakravarty, Director, FICCI.

The conclave was well attended by State Govern-ments and investors. West Bengal was a Theme State in the Conclave while the States of Maharashtra, Delhi, Guja-rat and Madhya Pradesh were Partner States. Around 80 investors including 10 investors from the AAHOA delegation attended the two-day event. Each participant gave detailed

presentations on the Invest-ment opportunities in their states. Additionally, each state met with the potential investors during one to one B2B meetings held over two days. The mem-bers of the AAHOA delegation also presented their plans and vision for expansion in India.

West Bengal invited hote-liers and investors to avail the ample opportunities in the state with projects worth nearly ₨4000 crore in the PPP model ready for takeoff.

“There are ample oppor-tunities to develop tour-ism projects in the state, as we have Himalayan moun-tain range and tea gardens at Darjeeling, the largest river-ine delta with mangrove for-est and Royal Bengal tiger at Sunderbans, the river Ganga for cruise, Bay of Bengal lapping the state and many more attractions for tour-ists,” Bengal Finance Min-ister Amit Mitra said at the FICCI conclave.

FICCI holds first B2B conclave for Film Tourism

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | maRcH 2013 31EVENTS

The German National Tour-ist Office (GNTO) in India, which is responsible for pro-moting destination Ger-many for leisure and busi-ness, announced a continued focus on growth in India. The new 2013 marketing theme is “Germany for young people” aimed at increasing the num-ber of visitors to Germany.

The five German cities that stand out as the favou-rite for the Indian travellers on the basis of highest visi-tors overnights received are Munich (74,386 overnights), followed by Frankfurt (70,816 overnights), Stuttgart (43,399 overnights) Berlin (38,299 overnights) and Düsseldorf (19,075 overnights) (Source: Magic Cities Association Germany). The different travel segments formed by the Indian traveller to Ger-many include honeymoon-ers, MICE etc.

“The rise in inbound travel to Germany again far exceeded the growth at global and European level in 2012. International arrivals in Ger-many increased by 7.3% year on year between January and

December 2012. By compari-son, growth was 3.8% at global level and 3.3% at European level (UNWTO). We expect incoming travel to Germany to remain on an upward trend

in 2013, with overnight stays by visitors from abroad ris-ing by between 2% and 3%. If the main source markets con-tinue to perform strongly, we will be on track to pass the 80

million mark in international overnight stays by 2020,” Petra Hedorfer, Chief Execu-tive Officer, German National Tourist Board (GNTB) said in a press statement.

Indian market a consistent growth story for destination Germany

“Since the establish-ment of GNTO in India in 2006, we have regis-tered a growth of 55% in traffic to Germany from India for the period 2007-2012. Our latest 2013 cam-paign is centred on broad spectrum of activities tar-geting the young, ranging from social media, online microsite development, and development of youth hotspots etc.

Our marketing and PR campaign in India has always kept destination Germany in the spotlight and we have reached out not just to the tier I cities but have made vital for-ays into the smaller tier II cities of India as well. Our 2013 campaign ‘Ger-many for young people’ will help encourage youth right from schools, colleges to young professionals to visit Germany for an expe-rience of a lifetime.”

Romit Theophilus Director, Sales and Marketing

German National Tourist Office (India)

Posted at NDPSO, New Delhi - 110002 on 5/6 & 20/21 of every month.Date of Publication 01/02 &15/16 every month

Postal Registration No. DL(S) - 01/3404/2012-14RNI No. DELENG/2011/40217

2013Kolkata

5, 6, 7 July Netaji Indoor Stadium &

Khudiram Anushilan Kendra

Ahmedabad16, 17, 18 August

Gujarat University Exhibition Hall

Mumbai30, 31, August, 1 September

Nehru CentreWorli

Hyderabad12, 13, 14 JulyHITEX Exhibition CentreMadhapur

Surat23, 24, 25 AugustPandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium

Pune6, 7, 8 SeptemberOrchid Convention CentreBalewadi

2014


MuMBAIIndia’s Biggest Travel Market7, 8, 9 FebruaryBombay Convention & Exhibition Centre

NOW B2B FOCuSED

NEW DELHIIndia’s Second Biggest Travel Market14, 15, 16 FebruaryAshok Hotel Convention Centre

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