Sri Lanka has said that it was keen to participate in Travel Marts in India such as the forthcoming Great Indian Travel Bazar in Jaipur in April this year as it has a pan-Asian dimension.
The Tourism Minister of Sri Lanka, Milinda Moragoda who called on Minister of Tourism and Culture, Ambika Soni in New Delhi said India is a magnet and has established a benchmark in promotion of tourism sector in the world with its Incredible India campaign and any effort to take the lead in promoting tourism related cooperation by it will be supported by Sri Lanka.
During their 40-minutes meeting both the leaders discussed matters of cooperation in tourism sector between the two countries. The visiting dignitary praised India’s efforts against terrorism in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks and said his country would like to exchange ideas with India on security scenario in tourism sector.
Ambika Soni conveyed to her Sri Lankan counterpart that several steps are being taken by the Government of India and the Ministry of Tourism to meet the challenges posed by global meltdown and Mumbai terror attacks. She said hotel associations have come out with their own security guidelines in India after the Mumbai terror attack and the Government is providing them whatever assistance is necessary.
Milinda Moragoda urged Soni to provide expert help to Sri Lanka in strengthening the tourism sector and said Sri Lanka wants to learn from India how tourism related issues are dealt at the State and community level.
He said Sri Lanka is involving private sector in tourism related activities and wants to develop new tourism related products to attract more tourists.
Ambika Soni said tourism is an economic driver in India from which the Centre as well as the State Governments are benefiting. She said India is developing 22 mega destinations to provide complete experience for tourists.
Malaysia has become a booming tourist destination for Indians as 5.5 lakh tourists visited that country in 2008, increasing over 30 percent.
India successfully augmented its position as a pivotal tourism source market for destination Malaysia, as tourist from here surpassed the target of 5,50,738 Indian arrivals for 2008, a growth of 30.4 percent against the previous year, Malaysian Tourism statement in a statement.
Malaysia received 49,175 Indian tourists in December, up 33.6 percent for the same period in 2007, it added. The Indian market, with the potential to become a primary market in Malaysia, continues to be focus for extensive promotional activities and advertising efforts for Tourism Malaysia, the statement said.
The total number of tourists visiting Malaysia was 22,052,488 in 2008, registering an increase of 5.1 percent over the previous year.
“The overall arrivals for December were the highest compared to the rest of 2008. For December, 2,058,684 tourists arrived in Malaysia, which was an increase of 9.2 percent over last year,” it said.
Economic slowdown and the recent terror attacks in Mumbai have badly hit India’s tourism industry, according to PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI), a leading business organization.
“Besides the attacks in hotels and railway station in Mumbai, the slowdown of economy will impact tourist arrivals from January to April. In fact, the tourists arrivals will fall to almost 25 to30 percent,” says PHDCCI, that has assessed the impact of global financial crisis along with the recent terror attacks on tourism and civil aviation sectors through a survey in North India.
Stating that there had been a 50 percent fall in outbound tourism, PHDCCI said business tourism had also taken a beating as outbound and corporate incentive tours have fallen.
“In October last year, there was a mere 1.8 percent rise in number of foreign tourists coming to India. In comparison, the increase in foreign tourist arrivals in October 2007, compared to the same month in 2006, was 13.6 percent,” it said.
“The increase in the number of cancellations with tour operators during October to December 2008, compared to the same period in previous year, was up to 20 percent mainly due to terror attacks,” it added.
The survey reveals that January to April this year is the period that the recession has actually hit the tour operators with30 to 40 percent cancellations.
“Demand for travel is down, basically because the key Western source markets - the US and UK - have been badly affected by recession. In the hotels of Delhi the major clientele consists of foreign tourists and business travelers. But in these hotels there has been a 20 to 25 percent drop in room occupancy during October to December 2008, compared to same period in previous years,” the survey added.
Ministry of Tourism compiles monthly estimates of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) and Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) on the basis of data received from major airports. Following are the important highlights as regards these two important indicators of tourism sector.
Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs):
• FTAs during the year 2008 were 5.37 million as compared to FTAs of 5.08 million during the year 2007. Therefore, inspite of global financial melt down and terrorist activities, number of FTAs has increased in 2008 as compared to 2007. UNWTO has predicted a growth rate of 2-3% for international tourist arrivals in the world during 2008. Therefore, Indian Scenario (growth rate of 5.6%) is much better than world scenario.
• The number of FTAs in December 2008 has risen to 5.22 lakhs as compared to 5.21 lakhs in November 2008.
Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) from Tourism in Indian rupee terms and US $ terms
• FEE during the year 2008 were Rs. 50730 crore as compared to Rs. 44360 crore in 2007.
• FEE in US $ terms during for the year 2008 were US $ 11747 million as compared to FEE of US $ 10729 during 2007. The lower growth rate in 2008 as compared to 2007 may be mainly due to lower growth rate of FTAs in 2008 as compared to 2007 and exchange rate variation.
• FEE from tourism in December 2008 were Rs. 5083 crore as compared to Rs. 4935 crore in November 2008 and Rs. 5079 crore in December 2007.
• FEE in US $ terms during the year 2008 were US $ 1046 million as compared to US $ 1005 million in November 2008 and US $ 1287 million in December 2007. The decline in the FEE in US $ term during December 2008 vis-à-vis December 2007 is mainly due to the foreign exchange variations in these months.
Ambassador of India to Korea S. R. Tayal, launched the second phase of the Incredible India outdoor advertising campaign in Seoul with New Creative produced by the Ministry of Tourism, recently by flagging off the Subway Train wrapped in Incredible India images.
This Subway Train wrapped in Incredible India images will ply for two months on Line No. 4 from Danggogae to Oido - which is the busiest route in Korea. This launch was preceded by an Indian Tea Ceremony attended by major opinion makers, media personalities and a cross section from the tourism and travel industry.
The cuisine offered from various parts of India provided another vignette of tourist attractions in India.
The impact of the Outdoor Advertising campaigns launched in the Korean Market during 2008 in Seoul and Jeju Island has yielded increase in bookings received by the travel industry from this market.
Korea is a prime tourist generating market for India and in 2008 India received about 70,000 tourists, including repeat visitors from this market. It is expected that in 2009 this figure will increase further.
Outdoor advertising as well as organizing of mega promotional events is the strategy adopted for East Asian Markets and aggressive reassurance efforts are being made to sustain interest in India as a tourist destination.
