Incredible India
Tourism Outlook – Global
World Travel & Tourism generated about US$6,477.2 billion of economic activity (Total Demand) in 2006. As per the estimates the rate of growth in nominal terms, will take the total industry valuation to US$12,118.6 billion by 2016. Total Demand (or in other words, 100% of the world market share in Travel and Tourism) is expected to grow by 4.2% per annum, in real terms, between 2007 and 20161.
Post the period of stagnation triggered by the events of September 11, 2001 coupled with slow growth of the global economy, conflicts in the Middle East and sporadic terrorist attacks worldwide, International tourism has rebounded strongly since 2004, both in terms of arrivals and of receipts.
World Tourism demand like the global economy continues to exceed expectations, showing resilience against extraneous factors. The estimated 842 million arrivals in the year 2006 represent an additional 36 million over 2005 level, making a new record for the industry. Of the additional 36 million, 17 million were for Europe, 12 million for Asia and the Pacific, 3 million for Africa and for the Americas, respectively and nearly 2 million for the Middle East.2
Among the various regions, while Africa registered the highest annual growth rate for international tourist arrivals in both 2006 and 2005 (above 8%), it was followed closely by Asia and the Pacific 7.7% in 2005 and 7.6% in 2006.
By sub-regions, South Asia registered the highest annual growth rate in 2006 (10.1%), followed by Sub-Saharan Africa (9.4%) and South East Asia (9%). Europe and Middle East showed a growth rate of 4% in 2006. The weakest region was America, whose estimated growth rate was 2% 3.
In terms of the future forecast for the year 2007, Africa is forecast to record the highest growth in the year 2007 at 9%, followed by Asia and the Pacific at 8%. Americas (+2%), is set to continue growing below the world average, in spite of good performance of the southern destinations.
The “Taj Mahal” is the predominant element from the campaign, getting a maximum recall (34%). This holds true amongst the ‘Recent Travelers’ as well. Although the advertising is communicating the message of India being a destination steeped in history, culture and offering ‘lots to see and do’, there is no specifics that the travelers are able to associate with the ‘plenty’ aspect of the destination.
The advertising effectiveness in generating interest has been moderate. 44% of the travelers report that they were positively pre-disposed to visit India upon seeing the communication.
India has a very ‘distinct’ image with associations like – Palaces and Royal Retreats, Places of religious interests, Yoga, Ayurveda and meditation, Heritage and artifacts etc. In comparison to competing Asian destinations, China and Thailand have strong mentions with ‘Cultural Diversity’. Singapore and Hong Kong are considered to be safe and secure destinations.
Vision for India as a tourist destination
The mood is upbeat about India as a tourist destination. There is unequivocal mention of India being a potentially strong market from the point of view of vacation travel. The Regional directors did make a mention of the popularity of the destination having increased. For instance, in Australian market, the traffic of the travelers to India has doubled in the last three years. The expected growth across markets is about 18-20% (annual).
Market Position – India as a tourist destination
India is a “planned destination”. To elaborate further, India comes across as a choice of destination, when the vacation is more ‘in-depth’. One of the reasons why India has that positioning in the market currently is because of the ‘variety’ that the country has to offer. Travelers to India find it difficult to cover the length and the breadth in a short span of time, therefore the trend which is emerging and which is articulated by the directors is that India is a preferred destination when the trip is more planned from the travelers.
Therefore for shorter vacations, the getaways are decided on account of the nearness (distance) and also on the basis of all that the destination has to offer. Typically the trips to India have to be longer as far as the travelers projections are concerned and when they are planning their trips, they do take into account the time they would spend to witness and enjoy what India as a destination has to offer to them (there is a definite acceptance of India being a country that offers a ‘lot’).
One of the factors which make India a much “planned” choice of destination is also because of the lack of proximity to certain source markets. For instance, from the Australian market there is no direct flight to India. There are competing destinations who ply their Air Carriers but there are transit countries in between, which happen to be competing destinations, thereby increasing the time it takes to travel from Australia to India, and thus posing as a constraint.
Some of the competing destinations for India were mentioned as Thailand, Indonesia etc, now these destinations are small in geographies and are therefore “less time consuming” for the travelers (in case of un-planned or spontaneous vacations).
Key Business Goals for the Tourism offices
There is a unanimous mention of sustainability of growth coming up as key business goal and objective for the next two years. The directors are looking at growth of 18-20%. So the objective is to sustain the momentum which the tourism industry has enjoyed and in particular India as a tourist destination has been enjoying since the last few years.
Key strategies and leading initiatives
Multi pronged strategies are adopted by the tourism offices as the stakeholders involve the trade partners and the end travelers. As far as the trade partners or the intermediaries is concerned, the directors have been offering marketing support in terms of advertising, helping the trade partners with the destination brochures, holding work-shops, symposiums, seminars etc.
For the customers the strategies have been tailor made to suit the palette of the source markets. For instance in the Australian market, ‘Town to Town’ road-shows / activities are organized. The office there organizes something called as ‘India Evenings’, wherein the travelers who have been to India are called and asked to articulate their experience. The evenings are facilitated by the pictures and collages explaining or defining India as a tourist destination. In other markets there are a number of road-shows, which involve trade and also past visitors to India.
A taste of cuisine and culture of India is offered at these events. Another interesting activity which is initiated by the tourism office is organizing the ‘festivals of India’. The throughput is directed to re-create the experience that is often related with the fairs and festivals of India.
There is also mentioning of the Incredible India marketing campaign as one of the leading initiatives on part of the India government to provide fillip to the tourism industry. Incredible India campaign is considered a success, in terms of its ability to connect the varied activities that were being carried on by the various tourism offices in their endeavors to communicate to the travelers what brand India as a tourist destination stands for.
Before the campaign gained worldwide acceptance the communication as an activity (advertising) was left purely to the Tourism offices, this was hampering the equity of brand India, as there was no integration of messages that were being communicated by the various tourism offices. The thread of consistency was missing, there was no unifying link across those communication endeavors and also in terms of economics, it was proving costly for the NTOs to develop their own communication strategies and platforms to reach out to the end consumer (travelers).
Further, the campaigns are translated into local vernacular to suit the market specific requirements, and the NTOs also modify the message to include ‘call-to-action’ content in the communication modules. However the central theme across communication strategies now is the ‘Incredible India’ theme.
Currently, there are a number of initiatives which are undertaken trying to build-upon the central campaign – such as local communication, outdoor advertising and the like.
Growth opportunities
The need of the hour as articulated by the tourism offices seem to be the ability to develop customized product (travel routes / places to see) and communication for the travelers. As of now the communication is directed and read as India being a destination that has a lot to offer, however, it has to be made more ‘segment-specific’. One of the variables to qualify these segments would be the choice of vacation – adventure, medical-tourism, sight-seeing etc. It’s imperative to understand and identify these segments in detail and then chart out specific saleable products for these segments.
Further it is imperative to develop dedicated communication strategies highlighting the elements of the products specifically designed for these segments and then communicated with the channels which are segments specific to thus ensure maximum impact with minimum outlay.
In source markets like Australia, ‘Wild-life sanctuaries’, ‘alternate form of medicine’, ‘ayurveda in Kerala’, ‘Yoga’ etc are mentioned as the growth opportunities which can be leveraged on. For middle east, ‘green’ products such as Northeast, would be perceived as attractive.
Challenges ahead
India as a tourist destination has taken off. There is no denying that India has made an indelible impression in the global tourism industry. There is an unparallel belief of India being a great tourism product.
However some of the challenges that India as a tourism destination is grappling with involve things like – Air transportation, Hospitality (Accommodation), Local transportation, and other basic Infrastructure requirements (Roads, highways, national-ways, connectors, other forms of land and water transportation etc). Source markets like Australia; do not have a direct carrier to India.
One of the serious concerns is the translation of the basic amenities like infrastructure requirements into ‘negative’ word of mouth which thus impacts the salience of brand India as a tourist destination.
Hotels in India are now considered to be very expensive. The broad undertones suggest that the hotels and accommodation services in India are out-pricing themselves. There seems to be a general tendency amongst the hotel operators and also the trade not to allow confirmation of bookings at off-season rates, since the operators want to inflate bottom-line by selling their rooms at the most expensive rates possible by the law of demand and supply during peak season.
Interestingly, this has translated at times into Tourism offices not promoting India as a tourist destination during the peak season since the hotel rates are touching the ceiling. Thus India destination seems to be missing out on a large chunk of the share of wallet of a vacation traveler, since the ‘push’ from the tourism offices in some of the source markets is coming only during off-peak season.
Also the India-end of the operators (based in India) are found wanting in terms of support for operators in the source markets.
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Strength of the India NTO Organization
Some of the NTOs have been doing outstanding work and have been winning accolades for their endeavors. It is important that a ‘best-practice’ analysis across these tourism offices is done and the learning from these offices be captured in a capsule / module and then applied across the tourism offices.
Also for some of the tourism offices, the office bearers or the directors are fairly seasoned tourism experts, and the richness of their experience comes into play while executing and designing strategies for travelers as well as trade partners.
Challenges in selling India as a tourist destination
Poor infrastructure seems to be the biggest challenge that the NTO seems to be grappling with, in terms of selling India as a tourist destination. The visuals in the communication (Incredible India) campaign are at times representative of an ‘Ideal’ India than the ‘Real’ India.
For instance across the communication campaigns featuring Taj, the ambience are shown to be clean and hygienic whereas the actual experience presents a different story, this at times creates unrest within the travelers, since there is a huge mis-match of experience vs. expectations.
Depending upon the source markets, specificities are highlighted as problems, for instance for the Australian market – its capacity of the hotels, and direct airline facility which are voiced as priority concerns.
Lack of professionalism in the tourism office is highlighted as another concern. Taking cues from the tourism offices of competing destinations (Hong Kong, Singapore etc) there are suggestions to make the tourism office a ‘tourism marketing board’. Lack of marketing aptitude is mentioned as a concern area. There is a consensus on the present office bearers being more ‘generalists’ in their approach. There is lack of tourism experience and the tenure of stay of the office bearers is too short for them to start contributing effectively. This at times is a bottleneck in the way of faster and effective decision making which does hamper the day to day functioning of the tourism offices.
Although there is mentioning of dedicated tourism officers who are working in the tourism offices, however over a period of time that professionalism seems to be getting eroded because of the induction of generalists. There is no long term commitment from them. There are no concerns highlighted with respect to the funding of these offices; however there are concerns around the people who manage the funding, in terms of the aptitude and attitude for tourism development.
Adequacy of staff is also highlighted as a concern area, for instance it was mentioned that there is only one NTO which is looking after the whole of North and the South America, however the post of director has been vacant for the last two years and no efforts have been undertaken to fill in the vacancy. Also there is a need to supplement the local offices with staff from the local markets, rather than deputation from India, as they would be in a better position to understand the local market.
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Finally, since this business is largely seen as a trade driven market, there is a felt need to expose trade to the market. Other destinations seem to be undertaking a number of sponsored trips for people in the industry (airlines, travel agents, etc) to build interest in their market. India is currently challenged by lack of clear policy and current guidelines are found wanting.
BENGAL BEAUTY
The north east of India is opening
up to tourists. Travel talk’s JON
UNDERWOOD visited West Bengal
to see what the state has to offer.
MUKTIRANI NEGOTIATES the slippery
river bank with the grace of a gazelle. This
is no mean feat, given she is a 45-year-old
Asian elephant with a gaggle of excited
tourists on her back. Sunil, the mahout,
gently coaxes her on wards by digging his
right foot into the back of her ear.
The sun is sending light sabers of warmth
slicing through the jungle canopy and the
early morning mist is rising from the river,
but it is still cold. I am glad of the shared
body heat of my companions and the
warmth being given off from below by my
pachyderm pal.
This is the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary
in the Jalpaiguri District of West Bengal,
some 130 kilo metre from Siliguri. It stands
in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas and
covers more than 200 square kilo metre.
Opened in 1941, the sanctuary provides
shelter for endangered animals, in
particular the Indian one-horned rhino,
which is faced with extinction. Locals claim
it is the best animal park in northern West
Bengal, an area that is only just opening up
to large scale tourism.
I am hoping to get a glimpse of a rhino,
along with the Bengal tigers, leopards,
wild elephants, deer, peacocks and other
assorted fauna that now call Jaldapara
home. It’s incredibly quiet as we set off
around 6am on our elephant safari, the
jungle peace interrupted only by the sound
of two peacocks calling to each other.
With 33 species of mammals, 240 bird
varieties and 30 types of reptile in the park,
the chance of seeing something is high and
it does n’t take long for my camera to whip
into action. Sunil points out a sambar, the
largest deer in India, as it looks up from its
morning feed, and a peacock sitting high in
a tree. Then, as Muktirani swings around a
corner, there is a commotion in the bushes
ahead and we all freeze like statues. A rhino
ambles out of the flora, looking totally
uninterested in us (which is a blessing,
seeing as we are no more than a few feet
away) and only pauses momentarily before
shuffling back into the jungle. As animal
encounters go, it was short but it was
sweet.
The elephant safari is the ideal way to
explore Jaldapara. You are perfectly safe on
top of your elephant and it only costs about
$10 for an hour, leaving you plenty of time
to explore this fascinating region.
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THE JAYSHREE TEA CITY
You can’t come to this part of India and not
visit a tea plantation. It would be like going
to Singapore and not trying a Sling. The
Jayshree Tea City is only a short drive from
Jaldapara and stretches over an area of
some 48 square kilometres.
Although we visited when most of the
workers were on their annual holiday (mid-
December to mid-February) and the place
was relatively deserted, the gardens were
still impressive, with the tea bushes neatly
arranged in rows like soldiers on parade.
Come March when some 1,600 workers
return to pick the tea, it is a hive of activity.
Visitors are able to watch the full cycle of
production from picking to tasting at the
on-site processing plant.
Jayshree is a relatively new plantation,
being less than 10 years old. The pickers
earn around 250 Rupees a day (about
$4.50) and work in six hour shifts. It is
hard work, made even more hazardous
by the presence of two dangerous local
inhabitants.
“Sometimes leopards come out of the
jungle and like to sleep in the shade of the
tea bushes,” says our extremely helpful and
friendly guide Mithun Das from Wild Planet
Travels. His company can arrange tours
all around the area so he knows his stuff.
“And there are also the cobras that make
their homes in holes among the bushes.”
Suddenly 250 Rupees a day sounds really
inadequate.
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TOTOPARA
In such a massively overpopulated country,
it piques the interest when I am told about
a place that houses the smallest tribal
community in India.
Totopara is a small village on the banks
of the River Torsha near the Bhutan border
that is home to just 600 people, known as
the Totos or the dooars aboriginals. When
the monsoon rains come and the rivers
flood (June to September), the village is cut
off from the rest of the world. It is just 22
kilometres from Jaldapara and a must-visit
on any trip to this part of West Bengal.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when we
arrived on the outskirts of the village and
parked our cars. How many Westerners
had come this way? How primitive were
their living conditions? Should I be worried
about taking their pictures? And then I saw
the satellite dish…
For while Totopara may be small and
often isolated, the villagers don’t lack
some of the creature comforts of modern
civilisation. Youths on motorbikes whizz
up and down the tiny main street, mobile`
phones are everywhere and posters for
the latest Bengali movies cover shops and
walls. Unfortunately, the plastic bottle
and packaging epidemic that seems to be
engulfing India has also reached this tiny
enclave and there is rubbish everywhere.
