6.3.2019 TTG Show Daily ITB Berlin 21
Destination India
Seizing growth
opportunities
E-visa, greater product diversity offer opportunities for
India to attract more arrivals from Germany. By Rohit Kaul
I
ndia’s inbound tourism players are
expecting better performance from
Germany in 2019, thanks to greater
ease in obtaining visas and a growing
porfolio of tourism products to entice this
high-yield but undertapped market.
According to the latest statistics avail-
able from India’s Ministry of Tourism,
10 million tourists visited the country in
2017, of which 269,380 hailed from Ger-
many, the ninth top source of foreign tour-
ist arrivals.
Ravi Gosain, managing director, Erco
Travels, shared that German-speaking
markets – Germany, Switzerland and Aus-
tria – did better in 2018 than the previous
year for his company.
He is hopeful that the growth momen-
tum will continue this year, driven by a
“good demand for Ayurveda- and yoga-
related packages”.
Abhilash K Ramesh, executive director,
Kairali Ayurvedic Group, agreed: “I pre-
dict high volumes of demand in Ayurveda,
along with natural weight loss and detoxi-
fication (programmes) for the German-
speaking markets in 2019.
Vineet Raina, founder and managing
director of Pink Elephant Journeys, be-
lieves there is huge potential to increase
the number of tourists from Germany,
whose market share is a mere 2.7 per cent
of total foreign tourist arrivals.
He remarked: “The German market is
very interesting as 75 per cent of Germans
travel at least once a year with an average
duration of 13 days. About 62 per cent of
Germans love the sea, sun and sand, as
well as exploring cities with rich culture
and heritage.”
Bearing that in mind, Raina will pro-
mote beach holiday options such as Goa,
Kerala and Odisha to the German market,
while developing itineraries for yoga en-
thusiasts, as well as river cruising on Brah-
maputra.
Vibhas Prasad, director of Leisure Ho-
tels Group – which has hotels in the four
states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh and Goa – expects
Varanasi, the spiritual capital of India
good demand from the German market in
2019, especially for leisure, adventure, wil-
derness and spiritual experiences.
He shared that around two per cent of
guests at the group’s hotels in Rishikesh
and Haridwar are from Germany. To grow
business from this market, the group is
offering experiential activities on top of
stays.
Gosain, who thinks “India’s rich cul-
tural heritage” remains a strong drawcard
for foreigners, believes “promoting histori-
cal and cultural spots with a mix of lesser-
known tourism products can give further
boost to demand from German-speaking
markets in 2019”.
Meanwhile, the greater ease of obtain-
ing visas for foreign tourists, with Raina
dubbing the e-visa facility a “game-chang-
er” for the Indian inbound sector.
Ramesh concurred: “India has become
an easy destination to travel to, (due to)
the e-visa facility. This has helped to grow
the German market”.
Visas aside, Ramesh indicated that im-
proved connectivity and infrastructure de-
velopment in major Indian cities and pop-
ular tourist destinations have also helped
to attract repeat travellers from Germany.
“Infrastructure development taking
place in India’s north-eastern states will
encourage tourism to most of the region,”
added Raina.
However, industry stakeholders feel that
a lot more needs to be done to boost tour-
ist numbers for German-speaking mar-
kets.
“India still lags behind when it comes
to (projecting a) tourist-friendly image,
so the government PR departments must
work hard to spread as much as positive
news as they can, to counter negative pub-
licity. The tourism industry should also
focus on offering new and varied products
rather than competing on prices,” lament-
ed Gosain.
Added Raina: “The government must
also lower the tax burden to ensure we re-
main competitive, and stress on the safety
and security of tourists.”
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