TravTalk India Online Magazine
Keeping in view the current recovery, tourism industry is hopeful of a good inbound season this year. Extending support to the industry, government has planned a slew of measures, including a Global Media Campaign to boost business, says Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism.
Nisha Verma
Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Chairman, PATA-India Chapter, said that most of the “good” tourism destinations in the country are reporting “full occupancies”. “The hotel occupancy data for March 2022 shows that it has almost caught up the pre-COVID levels. There was very good occupancy in the last quarter of the last calendar year. Then there was a dip in January and February due to the Omicron wave, but in March again, the figure has rebound,” said Singh, while addressing the 11th PATA Update and Outlook meeting recently.
Recovery on cards
Singh said that in his interactions with tour operators, he found that they were getting queries and had foreign tourists coming in already. “I had a discussion with some tour operators. Most of them are getting good inquiries from abroad. Some tourists are already in the country even during this period, and the industry is hopeful of a good inbound season this year, which starts in September-October,” he added.
Marketing in May
Talking about the overseas marketing initiatives, he revealed that they have started virtual sessions with the new embassy people and the tour operators as virtual roadshows called Reconnect 2022. “These virtual session have already started. We are in touch with the newly appointed officers in embassies and they have come up with strategy papers specific to those countries, out of which we have selected five best strategy papers that will be presented to the Tourism Minister and External Affairs Minister. Based on that, future strategies in all the top potential markets will be adopted. This would be in conjunction with our missions and the tourism offices that are located abroad,” he said.
Apart from that, Singh said, the much-awaited Global Media
Campaign by the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) will be released in May. “It is stuck due to some issues at the Ministry of Finance level. We are in dialogue with them, and I hope to get those sorted out quickly so that we would be able to launch the campaign, which will be predominantly digital and TV campaigns, along with the participation in all the marts. I think this process will start in May. Hence, with all our campaigns starting off in May, we are in the right position to have a good and promising tourist season in this winter, as far as in inbound tourism is concerned,” he claimed.
The MOT is ready with the content for the campaigns. “Everything has been worked out because we were waiting during COVID to launch it, but there are some internal clearances within the government that are not in place. We are awaiting those approvals and once we get them, we will launch them,” he said.
UK visa
Responding on resuming e-visa facility for the UK citizens, Singh emphasised, “Visa regime is based on reciprocity. We have been liberal in giving e-visas to many countries. This was reviewed during COVID times and e-visas were restored for the markets from where people were coming to India, except for the UK and Canada on other considerations, and these were predominantly security issues etc. The visa regime is maintained at the Home Ministry. We are in dialogue with the Home Ministry and I have a presentation to make, where I will again take it up to relax the e-visa ban on the UK.”
Working with tourism officers
Singh revealed that the appointment of tourism officers in various embassies has been done by the Ministry of External Affairs on their request and the response has been “very good”. “One of the primary reasons for it is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his meeting with all the ambassadors of India, has emphasised on the importance of 3Ts—Trade, Technology and Tourism. He has given them a clear message that the performance of the missions abroad will be judged on how good they have been in promoting the 3Ts, where tourism means inbound tourism. That has definitely geared up all the embassies and when I meet the ambassadors, or when they are going out on the postings or transiting through India, I find them geared up for this because of the PM’s instructions and appeal to them,” he claimed.
Virtual roadshows
Singh claimed that virtual roadshows have a limit because one can’t reach out to large numbers with online medium. “It is a 2-D medium where you don’t get the response since it is digital. There is the advantage of reaching out in physical shows where you meet and talk to people in person and gauge the response in time. Once we get our clearances, I hope, along with the media campaign, we can start things soon shortly,” he shared.
Medical tourism in focus
Speaking on the launch of Ayush visa, Singh said, “We are in touch with the Ayush Ministry and the Home Ministry on this. This is under serious consideration because there is the intention of the government to promote medical value tourism including tourism for Ayush.”
