India is growing fast

India is a market most destinations cannot afford to ignore, including Greece, whose plans for promoting tourism abroad include a direct presence in India.

Hazel Jain

It has been a little over a year since the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO) delegation led by Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura came calling to India. It was an educational trip for the team which concluded that India is an opportunity for GNTO to reinvent new ways of communicating its messages about its tourism products, promote sustainability and depict Greece as a 365-day destination for the Indian market.

Following this lead is Konstantinos Tsegas, Secretary General, GNTO, who says that India is growing very fast and becoming a superpower through technology, energy and global economy. “It is a huge market we cannot ignore. We follow a dynamic campaign. For Greece, India represents a touristic market with a lot of potential as the tourism expenditure of the country has been growing extremely fast, and people in India have shown high interest to travel to Greece. GNTO is targeting audiences of high socio-economic profile in Asia through technology and social media to build a strong appeal. India is a market we are seriously looking at for expanding our policies,” he says.

When asked whether the tourism board plans to have a direct presence in India, he shares, “The process of our policies and the results of our strategies in the upcoming years will be the answer to this question. What is certain is that our plans for expanding our touristic product abroad include a much more direct presence in India.”

Without sharing any numbers from India, Tsegas adds that the growth percentage of arrivals from India is around 9.7 per cent each year. His plan now is to promote Greece as a 365-day destination for Indians. He adds, “We are happy to see that our target markets consider Greece as a 365-day destination. Greece is known for its culture, rich history and stable political conditions.”

Responding to the kind of expectations of Indian travel trade from Greece in 2019, Tsegas says, “We are still working on our plans. We have seen substantial growth in trade activities over the years along with increase in pre-bookings and an emphasis in new markets. The end of 2018 is about to show the results of the bookings made for the period of autumn and of the growing interest for city breaks. With the statistics we already have, 2019 seems to be even more promising than 2018.”

GNTO is targeting travellers across different age groups by appealing to each group through different platforms and messages – Generation Z, affluent families, educated youngsters and seniors. It is not looking at an online training programme for the India market but is instead relying on individual sales calls.

India Numbers

• GNTO’s growth percentage of arrivals from India is around 9.7 per cent each year
• There has been an increase in pre-bookings and focus on new markets