Overseas marketing a must

With tourism industry recovering fast worldwide, it is time state tourism authorities in India focus on overseas marketing strategies to help inbound players get more tourists, suggest industry experts.

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO

As far as the state governments are concerned, many of them have declared industry status for the tourism industry, so that is one of the important steps. Secondly, we have been requesting state governments to also participate in the international fairs, at least take the players in that state with them to educate them about the product. We have also requested that the state governments should take 10 to 20 per cent of main tour operators from other states, especially from Delhi or Mumbai, with them to help them understand the offerings of other states. Roadshows within India and abroad is a must.

Ravi Gosain, Vice President, IATO

State tourism is an integral part of industry, I can say because most of our members and tour operators are selling their state tourism to them. They should work more closely with IATO and other national associations that have their members in each and every state. So, when they are going on international platforms for marketing and promotions, they should also take in cognizance of IATO and its members. I hope they will take this action. We have been in touch with many state tourism departments and they are working towards building product knowledge. They are doing lots of product study tours for our members, which, I believe, is very important after two years of shutdown.

Rajnish Kaistha, Honorary Secretary, IATO

We have been requesting Ministry of Tourism on a lot of issues lately. Number one is overseas physical roadshows, so that people after a gap of more than two and a half years can go to the tourism generating markets and new markets as well. This way we can talk to the operators there, create a buzz in the media, and get the people to India. Currently, we are doing virtual roadshows, which are not giving the desired results. So, this is one of the most important things that we are pushing the government to do it for us at the Ministry of Tourism. The other concern is TCS that has been almost resolved.

Compiled by Janice Alyosius