TravTalk India Online Magazine
The tourism board has done away with its India-specific e-learning programme and introduced its international one here as well to keep it more relevant to a market that has been steadily maturing.
Hazel Jain
Switzerland Tourism has introduced its global e-learning programme for the travel agents to sell the destination in the India market as well. This was launched in January this year and its India-specific programme that was created especially for this market was discontinued. Speaking about the decision behind this development, Claudio Zemp, Director—India, Switzerland Tourism, says, “We are very proud to introduce our new e-learning programme – the Switzerland Travel Academy – in India. This is a global programme for travel agents all over the world and is now also available for the Indian agents. Observing the fast-evolving nature of the demand and requirements from the India market as well as the knowledge about the destination, we have now started using the same e-learning programme for India.”
The NTO recently conducted a series of four webinars this year that received an overwhelming response with about 600 people joining each webinar. The numbers are also good, as Zemp reveals. “We had an increase of 23.4 per cent in terms of tourists generated out of India in 2017 over the previous year. It was a hugely successful year for us and we are grateful to the travel trade for that. This year, we are already seeing increased numbers. The first three months of 2018 saw an increase of 16.4 per cent over the previous year during the same period, which is traditionally not a busy season for us,” he says.
India spends more now
Zemp claims that India is one of the strategic growth markets for Switzerland Tourism. “This means that we are expecting the highest growth from these markets. We also invest the most money per traveller in these markets. India currently ranks eighth and second in Asia after China. In terms of spends, our annual review showed that while in the past Indians spent an average of Swiss Francs 240 per person per day in Switzerland, this has increased to about Swiss Francs 310, making India the third-highest spender in Switzerland after the GCC and China!” he adds.
The NTO will conduct its ‘India Workshop’ where it takes 40 key buyers from India to Switzerland in Zurich this year in September. This will be followed by its annual ‘Switzerland Travel Experience’ roadshow in October 2018 where it will bring 25 key Swiss partners and visit Mumbai and Delhi as always but also Kolkata and Cochin.
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