Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Regional Office
Pardi, Pokhara, Tel: 977 61 465292
Email: pntb@wlink.com.np
As part of Nepal Tourism Board’s annual programme, Nepal Tourism Board has commissioned a research on India Consumer Outbound
to Falcon Infocomm Pvt. Ltd., a Delhi based public relations and research consultant. The main aim of the research is to gauge the
market dynamics in the Indian outbound tourism that will help chalk out strategies to Nepal Tourism Board and tourism entrepreneurs
in Nepal.
2010
Executive Summary
1. The rapid growth of Indian Economy has resulted in manifold changes in the way Indian Tourist travels.
2. The Indian Tourist is now well informed and is travelling much more than ever before. With increased
wealth, Indian Middle Class is emerging as the largest number generator.
3. Indian Tourist does not consider Nepal as a low end International destination any more. Singapore, Malaysia
and Thailand now occupy these slots.
4. Nepal needs to position itself as a travel destination competing against Indian Domestic Travel destinations
such as Nainital, Mussoorie and Agra. These destinations have very high domestic travel movements and
include aspirational travelers who could be converted into travelling to Nepal.
6. Nepal should focus on promotions in secondary cities as this shall help in higher numbers and lower
acquisition cost per traveler. Vernacular language promotion mediums should also be considered.
7. There is a need for one consolidated promotion strategy which should include Nepal Tourism Industry
and Indian Tourism Industry where Nepal Tourism Board can play role of a facilitator.
Contents
CHAPTER
Chapter 1 Why India Matters? 9
Chapter 2 Overview on Indian Economy, Tourism Development and 13
Creation of Wealth in the Last Decade
Chapter 3 Indian Tourism Industry – An Outlook 23
Chapter 4 Domestic Tourism in India 35
Chapter 5 Current Trends and Information on Key Outbound Destinations 59
which are Competitive to Nepal Including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia
Chapter 6 Consumer Characteristics, Outbound, Major Tourism Players of 75
Focus Areas- Delhi and Surroundings and Mumbai and Surroundings
Chapter 7 Suggestions on Market Segmentation with Special Reference to Nepal 85
Chapter 8 Suggestions on Marketing Strategy, Policies and Programs 91
for Nepal Tourism Board to Attract Indian Tourists
Chapter 9 Recommendations & Guidelines for 105
Nepal Tourism Board Annual Promotion Plan 2010/11
ANNEX
Annex I The Trends in Information, Communication and 106
Technology in Tourism Development
Annex II The Commonwealth Games 2010 109
Annex III Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indian Tourism 111
Annex IV Role of Bollywood and International Tourism Boards 113
Annex V References 115
Annex VI Research Questionnaires 118
Annex VII Responses to Queries Made during Presentation at Kathmandu, 120
Nepal on 25th October 2009
Contents
TABLES
Table 1 Arrivals from India, 2000-2007 10
Table 2 Detail Budget for the Year 2008-2010 21
Table 3 Foreign Tourist Arrivals and Foreign Exchange Earnings 27
Table 4 Important Facts about Tourism - 2008 29
Table 5 Number of Indian National Departure from India 1996-2008 30
Table 6 Destination-wise Indian Nationals Outbound Travel, 2000-2006 32
Table 7 Number of Domestic Tourist Visits to all States/UTs in India, 1996-2008 39
Table 8 State/UT Domestic and Foreign Tourist Visits, 2005-2007 40
Table 9 Percentage Shares and Ranks of Different States/ 41
UTs in Domestic and Foreign Touris Visits during 2007
Table 10 Share of Top 10 States/UTs of India in Number of Domestic Tourist Visits in 2008 43
Table 11 Domestics and Foreign Visitors at 10 Most Popular Centrally
Protected Ticketed ASI Monuments During 2007 44
Table 12 Sources of Religious Tourists 53
Table 13 Indians Keep the Faith: Religious Tourism Booms in India 53
Table 14 Singapore’s India-Promotion Plan 61
Table 15 Socio-economic Parameters of Delhi and Mumbai 77
Table 16 Affluence Index of Delhi and Mumbai 78
Table 17 Outbound Movements from Indian Cities 80
Table 18 International Travel Matrix 83
Table 19 Characteristics of Family Holidays 87
Table 20 Characteristics of Young and Restless 88
Table 21 Characteristics of Young Working Couples 88
Table 22 Characteristics of Middle Age Consumers 89
Table 23 Characteristics of Religious Groups 89
Table 24 Characteristics of Retired and Leisure Holiday Makers 90
Table 25 Budget Activities 101
Table 26 Suggested Activities 105
FIGURES
Figure 1 International Tourist Arrivals from India by Destination Region, 2006 (%) 9
Figure 2 Consumption by the Middle Class 15
Figure 3 India’s Growing Middle Class 16
Figure 4 Number of Indian National Departures from India, 1996-2008 31
Figure 5 Number of Domestic Tourist Visits to all States/UTs in India, 1996-2008 39
Figure 6 Percentage Share of Top 10 States/UTs in Domestic Tourist Visits in 2008 43
Figure 7 Tourism Supply Chain 91
Figure 8 Supply Chain and Tourism Volume 92
Figure 9 Tourism Leverage Points 93
Figure 10 Factors Influencing Visitor Behaviour 96
ABBREVIATIONS
ASI Archeological Survey of India
BSE Bombay Stock Exchange
CFA Central Financial Assistance
CRM Customer Relationship Management
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
FCI Food Craft Institute
FTA Foreign Tourist Arrivals
FEE Foreign Exchange Earnings
GDP gross domestic product
GSS Great Singapore Sale
IIP Indian Industrial Production
ITES Information Technology Enabled Services
LCC Low Cost Carrier
MoT Ministry of Tourism
MICE Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions
MTPB Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
NCR National Capital Region of Delhi
NTB Nepal Tourism Board
STB Singapore Tourism Board
PPPs Public-Private Partnerships
TAT Tourism Authority of Thailand
TSA Tourism Satellite Accounting
USD United States Dollar
UT Union Territory
VFR Visiting Friends and Relatives
7
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Chapter 1
The robust economic growth and impressive developments in Indian tourism in recent years have brought
the country as a major force in the world tourism market – both for inbound and outbound tourism. According
to World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), in 2007 the total number of tourist arrivals to India was 5 million
and the number of outbound trips by Indian nationals increased by 17% over 2006 reaching an estimated 9.8
million. Thus, outbound tourism has already overtaken inbound tourism during the same period and is expected
to expand further in the coming years. The average annual growth rate in terms of number of international
trips made by Indians during the period 2000-2007 was 11%. The UNWTO has predicted that by 2020 India
will account for 50 million outbound tourists, continuing to maintain its growth momentum. According to
2006 data, the main destinations for Indian outbound are Asia and Europe, accounting for 64% and 20% of
the total outbound travel from India respectively. In Asia, Southeast Asia has the largest share of the
international tourist arrivals from India as shown in figure 1.
FIGURE 1. International Tourist Arrivals from India by Destination Region, 2006 (%)
Australia/
Afric Oceania
a
cas 5 2
meri
A
9
Europe
20
Asia
64
Source: Netherlands Board of Tourism and Convention, India Market Scan 2006, July 2006, cited in UNWTO, 2006
9
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Why India
Chapter 1 Matters?
As shown in Table 1 indicates that the top five destinations for Indian arrivals are Singapore, Bahrain,
Thailand, United States of America and China.
Not only Indian tourists are important in terms of quantity also they are also recognized as having high
propensity to spend during their travel. According to the UNWTO in 2007, international tourism expenditure
by Indians grew by 20% over 2006 reaching an estimated figure of US$ 8.2 billion. On an average, Indians
spent US $ 838 per trip overseas in 2007.
Indian outbound to Nepal constitutes very negligible part while for Nepal in terms of arrivals it is the biggest
source market. In 2008 and 2007 the share of Indian tourist arrivals to Nepal was 18.2%. However, this
percentage represents Indian tourists arriving in Nepal by air only.
Therefore, it is realized that there is a need for a strategic report on India in order to tap growing Indian
tourism market as it is one of the most important segments when it comes to tourist inflow in Nepal. A
strategic report provides expertise and helps gain a greater visibility into operations, markets and competition.
10
Purpose of the Study
The India Market report aims to provide clear insight and shall help in planning and coming up with solutions,
enhancements or support for existing system. It shall also help Nepal in remaining on top of competition,
zoom from a macro level to granular detail and the data shall help get better insight. It will also strive to
bridge the gap and look at every possible way to make a clear goal and develop an action plan when it comes
to tourism promotion activities.
This is particularly captured by the topics covered in the following chapters, exploring issues such as the
impact of recession on the tourism industry, the importance of price competitiveness for attracting tourists
and the extent to which the Index explains differences in travel intensity between countries, trends used to
promote destinations, consumer lifestyle, economy, demographic and geographic impacts etc giving a detailed
insight into understanding the target customers and how to reach them. The report also notes some of the
main qualitative trends seen in the industry in the form of increased market segmentation, the development
of new forms of tourism especially those related to nature and wildlife, rural areas, culture. Also how such
programmes are influencing traditional package tours as the tourists are increasingly becoming selective
about destinations and are demanding higher quality products and services. Hence there is a need to
understand and provide a product which appeals to them.
An economy has the potential to enhance lives in a sustainable framework through providing wealth creation,
choice, innovation and competition. The travel and tourism industry contains these four elements that enable
it to be a dynamic market force for sustainability in the future and economic growth. It is hoped that the
report will help serve the purposes.
Research Methodology
The report was a combination of desk research, interviews with the travel trade, and discussions with Tourism
Boards. It went to following processes:
A comprehensive survey was also conducted to take feedback from the Tourism Industry and the process of
survey included:
• Telephonic discussions
• Feedback with travel agents during India Sales Missions
• Consumer feedback during consumer promotion events done in June 2009.
The Report aims support the informed decision making process and would help develop strategies for the
target audience and make better plans for achieving a higher number of tourist inflow which should culminate
in an overwhelming success of the Nepal Tourism Year 2011.
11
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Why India
Chapter 1 Matters?
The Report aims to support the informed decision making process and would help develop strategies for the
target audience and make better plans for achieving a higher number of tourist inflow which should culminate
in an overwhelming success of the Nepal Tourism Year 2011.
12
Chapter 2
The slowdown of growth witnessed during the 1970s was reversed during the 1980s, the pick-up benefited
from the initiation of some reform measures aimed at increasing domestic competitiveness. Since the early
1990s, growth impulses appeared to have gathered further momentum in the aftermath of comprehensive
reforms encompassing the various sectors of the economy.
Indian economy has become much more integrated with the world economy now than the pre-reform period.
Liberalization in industry, investment, foreign trade, financial sector and capital flows that was undertaken
after the balance of payment crisis in early 1990s led to India becoming well integrated with the world economy.
There was some loss of the growth momentum in the latter half of the 1990s which coincided with the onset
of the East Asian financial crisis, setbacks to the fiscal correction process, quality of fiscal adjustment, slowdown
in agriculture growth affected by lower than normal monsoon years, and some slackening in the pace of
structural reforms. The slowdown could also be attributed to the excessive enthusiasm and optimism in
regard to investment plans in domestic industry following deregulation, which was followed by significant
problems experienced in viability and competitiveness. Monetary tightening in the face of inflationary pressures
is also believed by some to have contributed to the slowdown over this period.
Total trade flows (receipts and payments on merchandise and invisibles), as a proportion of GDP, rose from 20
per cent to 53 per cent during the period 1990-91 to 2007-08. Capital flows (inflows plus outflows) had been
just 12 per cent of GDP in 1990-91, and in 2007-08 they rose to 64 per cent of GDP. Interestingly, these ratios
are significantly higher than those in the US for which in 2007 trade in goods and services constituted a lower
41 per cent of GDP and capital flows were only 25 per cent of the GDP in that year. (ICRIER, 2009)
Since 2003-04, there has been a distinct strengthening of the growth momentum. Restructuring measures by
domestic industry, overall reduction in domestic interest rates, both nominal and real, improved corporate
profitability, favourable investment climate amidst strong global demand and rules-based fiscal policy have led
to the real GDP growth averaging close to 9 per cent per annum over the 6 year period, ending 2008-09.
The higher order of investment activity in the country over the past few years has also been mirrored in
strong demand for credit from the banking sector since 2003-04 onwards. In this context, reforms in the
financial sector have played a key role. Financial sector reforms, initiated in the early 1990s, encompassed
introduction of auctions in government securities, deregulation of interest rates and reduction in statutory
pre-emption of institutional resources by the Government was carried forward with the phasing out of the
system of automatic monetization of fiscal deficits from 1997-98. These measures along with developments
13
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Overview on Indian Economy, Tourism Development
Chapter 2 and Creation of Wealth in the Last Decade
in the Government securities market, by making the yield market-determined, formed the backbone of
financial market reforms.
Apart from making the interest rates largely market determined, reforms included a market-determined
exchange rate, current account convertibility, substantial capital account epitomized and deregulation of the
equity market. The financial sector reforms designed to improve cost efficiency through price signals, in turn,
facilitated the conduct of monetary policy through indirect market-based instruments through improved fiscal-
monetary coordination. This process was further strengthened through the implementation of the FRBM
(Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) Act, 2003, under which the Central Government targets to
eliminate the revenue deficit and reduce its fiscal deficit to 3 per cent of GDP by 2008-09 and the Reserve
Bank was prohibited from participating in the primary government securities market from April 2006. Overall,
these reforms have led to better price discovery in both interest rates and exchange rate, thereby contributing
to overall efficiency in financial intermediation.
Public investment has started increasing since 2003-04, reversing a long-period of declining trend that began
in mid-1980s. Since 2003-04, private investment has also witnessed a significant rise.
India had been growing robustly at an annual average rate of 8.8 per cent for the past five years (2003-04 to
2007-08). This was higher than the potential growth rate of output as estimated both by the IMF and OECD.
The strong Indian growth story, based on its structural strengths of a young population, skilled manpower,
rising savings and investment rates, large unfulfilled domestic demand and globally competitive firms attracted
significant investor attention in recent years. Recent high rates of economic growth have been the result of
high levels of investment, rise in productivity supported by technological up-gradation and greater integration
with global flows of trade, finance and technology. (ICRIER, 2009)
According to a report The ‘Bird of Gold’: The Rise of India’s Consumer Market, by the year 2025 (The McKinsey
Global Institute, 2007). India’s middle class is expected to swell almost 12-fold from its size of 50 million
people to over 583 million – some 41% of the population. This will trigger explosive growth in the consumer
market taking it to $1.5 trillion, making India the world’s fifth-largest consumer economy by 2025.
This will have significant implications for the tourism industry as it is a well-recognized axiom that travel is the
first priority of an income earner after the basic requirements of home, food and essentials. Thus, as people
acquire more disposable income, the demand for travel and tourism will grow exponentially. Moreover, there
will be more such people with disposable incomes as the demographic transition in the country would produce
a huge surge in people in the 20-60 years age group. Domestic tourism, thus, poses many opportunities for
the tourism industry and meeting the needs of the expanding middle class will be the key to it.
The ‘middle class’ cherish family ideals and values and invest in products that ensure upward mobility of the
family and longevity of economic success through transfer to generation next. Children get first priority on
the budget and this has empowered them to emerge as main influencers on family purchases such as mobile
phones, TVs, music systems, computers and even cars. A study commissioned by Cartoon Network some
years ago measured the `pester power’ – the influence children have on purchase decisions – of Indian kids as
substantial (close to 40%) and growing.
India’s growing middle class has also given rise to an economically comfortable retired pensioner who, having
completed the family responsibilities, is free to spend on travel, mirroring the trend of other developed
nations. By the year 2025, the above 60 years of age group in India’s age pyramid is also going to increase.
Moreover, travel by railways and air is cheaper for senior citizens because of concessions – all these factors
14
Chapter 2
32
24 Strivers (500-1,000)
35
Middle
51 class
77 35 Seekers (200-500)
54 36
24 17 Aspirers (90-200)
10
3 Deprived (<90)
1985 1995 2005E 2015F 2025F
Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest integer and may not add up to 100%
Source: MGI India Consumer Demand Model , v1.0
will facilitate domestic tourism and the same is applicable for Nepal due its close proximity and cultural
similarities. This should be Nepal target segment.
15
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Overview on Indian Economy, Tourism Development
Chapter 2 and Creation of Wealth in the Last Decade
The middle class in India is on the rise: the number of households with an annual income of
between 2,000 and 4,999 US dollars is increasing continuously. The average household in India
consists of 5.5 people.*
90
77 80
75 75
54 50
47
32
10
1 3
Households in millions
Well-off households: annual income of
more than 5,000 US dollars.
Households that can afford a few luxuries (“spenders”):
annual income between 2,000 and 4,999 US dollars.
Up-and-coming households (“aspirers”): annual income between
1,000 and 1,999 US dollars
Lo-income households: annual income of less than
1,000 US dollars
Tourism has been a major social phenomenon of the societies all along. It is motivated by the natural urge of
every human being for new experience, adventure, education and entertainment. The motivations for tourism
also include social, religious and business interests. The spread of education has fostered a desire to know
more about different parts of the globe. The basic human thirst for new experience and knowledge has
become stronger, as communication barriers are getting overcome by technological advances. Progress in air
transport and development of tourist facilities have encouraged people to venture out to the foreign lands.
Tourism’s importance, as an instrument for economic development and employment generation, particularly
in remote and backward areas, has been well recognized the world over. It is the largest service industry
globally in terms of gross revenue as well as foreign exchange earnings. Tourism can play an important and
effective role in achieving the growth with equity objectives which India has set for itself. Tourism is one
economic sector in India that has the potential to grow at a high rate and can ensure consequential development
of the infrastructure of the destinations. It has the capacity to capitalize on the country’s success in the
services sector and provide sustainable models of growth.
16
Chapter 2
It has the potential to stimulate other economic sectors through its backward and forward linkages and
cross-sectoral synergies with sectors like agriculture, horticulture, poultry, handicrafts, transport,
construction, etc. Expenditure on tourism induces a chain of transactions requiring supply of goods and
services from these related sectors. The consumption demand, emanating from tourist expenditure, also
induces more employment and generates a multiplier effect on the economy. As a result, additional
income and employment opportunities are generated through such linkages. Thus, the expansion of the
tourism sector can lead to large scale employment generation and poverty alleviation.
The growth in the tourism sector emerged as a very important contribution to the national economy and
contributed quite a lot for employment generation in various tourism related activities. The indirect
employment multiplier in the case of tourism is fairly high and is estimated as 2.36 which implies that direct
employment of one person in the tourism sector creates employment to 1.36 persons in other sectors of the
economy due to linkages with tourism .These linkages are in the sectors like agriculture horticulture, poultry,
handicrafts, construction, sports etc. Further these directly/indirectly employed following the development
of tourism may also need more goods & services as a result of such employment than what they would have
demanded otherwise. Additional demand will thus generate more employment and further multiplier effect
will come into force through successive chain of transactions. In fact investment in tourism has the potential
to create more jobs compared to many other sectors and all the more at a lower level of investment. The
labour/capital ratio is very favorable in tourism sector compared to many other industries with 47.5 jobs for
a million rupee investment as has been seen in the survey conducted by the Ministry of Tourism (MoT),
government of India (Kanjilal, 2006). Tourism is now recognized for its contribution to create job for large
number of women. This empowerment of women which is being focused by the successive governments
is achieved through tourism projects more positively. Both educated & uneducated women are now
involved in tourism related activities. Women are effective in tourism business with their mental attitude
for service and care and upbringing since their childhood especially in hospitality industry. Now in India,
more women are in hotel, travel, airlines services, handicrafts making, cultural & entertainment events,
etc. and are now better integrated in the national developmental programme through tourism activities.
With this double income in the family, the standard of living in the families has improved. Better education
of children, improved health care, and better exposure through interaction and thus a general improved
scene in the women force which was earlier very restricted to move beyond their house limit.
The economic benefits that flow into the economy through growth of tourism in shape of increased national
and State revenues, business receipts, employment, wages and salary income, buoyancy in Central, State and
local tax receipts can contribute towards overall socio-economic improvement and accelerated growth in the
economy. Tourism is overwhelmingly an industry of Private sector service providers, although the public
sector has a significant role to play in infrastructure areas either directly or through public–private
partnerships (PPPs) approach. It is a multi-sectoral activity characterized by multiple services provided by
a range of suppliers. It is quite similar to manufacturing industry, where the supply chain is as important
as the end product. The related sectors include airlines, surface transport, hotels, basic infrastructure and
facilitation systems, etc. Thus, the growth of tourism cannot be attained unless the issues related to all
the sectors are addressed simultaneously.
Another important feature of the tourism industry, which is of particular significance to India, is its contribution
to national integration and preservation of natural as well as cultural environments and enrichment of the
social and cultural lives of people. Over 382 million domestic tourists visiting different parts of the country
every year return with a better understanding of the people living in different regions of the country. They
have a better appreciation of the cultural diversity of India. Tourism also encourages preservation of monuments
and heritage properties and helps the survival of arts forms, crafts and culture.
17
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Overview on Indian Economy, Tourism Development
Chapter 2 and Creation of Wealth in the Last Decade
It is also important to note that tourism has become an instrument for sustainable human development
including:
• Poverty alleviation
• Environmental regeneration
• Job creation
• Advancement of women and other disadvantaged groups.
According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), the year 2008 saw more than 922 million international
tourist arrivals, and the tourism receipts were of the order of US $ 944 billion. The World Travel and Tourism
Council (WTTC) for 2009 forecasts that the contribution of the Travel & Tourism economy to total employment
is expected to rise from 219,810,000 jobs in 2009, 8.4% of total employment or in 1 in every 11.8 jobs by
2019. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to rise from 9.4% (US$5,474 billion) in 2009 to 9.5%
(US$10,478 billion) by 2019. However Real GDP growth for the Travel & Tourism economy is expected to be
-3.5% in 2009, down from 1.0% in 2008, but to average 4.0% per annum over the coming 10 years with
export earnings from international visitors and tourism goods are expected to generate 10.9% of total
exports (US$1,980 billion) in 2009, growing (in nominal terms) to US$4,132 billion (9.8% of the total) in
2019. (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2009)
There has been a remarkable growth over the years in foreign tourist arrival to India due to the various efforts
made, including promoting India through the ‘Incredible India’ campaign in overseas markets. This global
campaign had attracted the attention of tourism industry observers as well as tourists. Foreign tourist arrivals
(FTAs) in India increased from 2.73m in 2002 to 5.37m in 2008. The foreign exchange earnings (FEE) from the
tourism sector in 2008 were Rs. 50,730 crore, an increase of 14.4 per cent over 2007. (Ministry of Tourism
India. 2008)
The contribution of the Travel & Tourism economy to employment is expected to rise from 31,105,000 jobs in
2009, 6.4% of total employment or 1 in every 15.6 jobs to 40,037,000 jobs, 7.2% of total employment or 1 in
every 13.8 jobs by 2019. Real GDP growth for Travel & Tourism economy is expected to be 0.2% in 2009 and
to average 7.7% per annum over the coming 10 years. (World Travel & Tourism Council. 2009.)
Though the growth in tourism in India has been impressive, India’s share in global tourist arrivals and earnings
is quite insignificant. India’s rank in world tourist arrivals in 2008 was 41. It is universally acknowledged that
the tourism resources in the country have the potential to generate significantly higher levels of demand
from the domestic and international markets, and, if exploited intelligently in a sustainable manner, can
prove to be the proverbial engine of growth for the economy.
The financial crisis in the US started in the latter half of 2007, with the so-called sub-prime housing mortgage
crisis. As is by now well established, the crisis had its real roots in hugely excessive leveraging by investment
and commercial banks, under-pricing of risk and lack of necessary regulatory oversight. The busting of some
of the big financial institutions has created an atmosphere of lack of confidence.
18
Chapter 2
This extraordinary financial crisis has now spread to Europe and Japan and is likely to see most developed
economies suffering a prolonged period of recession that could extend beyond 2009 and according to
some even beyond 2010. The contagion of this financial crisis has now spread to countries in Asia as the
export markets of these countries have virtually collapsed. Exports in major Asian economies have declined
by huge amounts. Japan and Taiwan saw a fall in exports of around 35 per cent and 40 per cent respectively
in their exports in December 2008. The fallout from a major slowdown in Chinese exports and its GDP
growth on South East economies and indeed the rest of the world can be severe and has yet to be factored
in to the estimates of global growth for 2009 and 2010. Along with exports, industries in the region have
also been affected as can be seen in the shocking contraction of Taiwan’s industrial production of around
32 per cent in December 2008.
The Indian economy was slowing down even before the onset of global crisis and hence the timing of this
external shock could not have been worse. The Indian economy was on a cyclical slowdown after a five-year
record boom and there was every hope that the economy will go for another strong growth phase after this
brief slowdown. The global crisis has changed that outlook and instead will deepen and prolong Indian
economy’s slowdown. It has dealt a severe blow to investment sentiments and consumer confidence in the
economy
With the increased linkage with the world economy, India cannot remain immune to the global crisis. India
began to feel the impact of the crisis in January 2008 when the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) sensex
collapsed after crossing the peak of 20800 in early January 2008. While the Indian economy registered an
average growth of 8.8% during the 5 years ending 2007-08, its growth is slacking today because the global
economic crisis is getting even deeper than before. Latest IIP numbers for February 2009 shows negative
1.2% growth as against plus 9% growth recorded by the industry in the same month of previous year.
The six-core infrastructure industry managed to continue with a positive 2.2% growth, this growth was however
much less than the growth number of 7% seen in the previous year. All the constituent sectors except the
crude petroleum were seen to post positive growth.
The recently adopted measures by the government, including reduction in fuel prices has brought the WPI
based inflation under control. The average inflation for February 2009 was 3.45%. However, disaggregated
numbers raise concerns over the price rise of the essential commodities like the primary food articles, with
the main economic indicators off the growth track the stock markets seems to appear unattractive for the
FIIs. The exit from the markets have has an impact on the overall economy as the country’s forex reserves got
affected. The Sensex shuttled between 10K and 8K, which is indicative of the continued weakness in markets.
Money supply in the economy expanded in February 2009 by 16% and was less by a percent than the growth
seen in previous year. The credit off take was on the rise, borrowing by the government and by the commercial
sector increased in February 2009. The net foreign exchange assets with the banks turned negative during the
month. Growth in the aggregate deposits is maintained compared to the previous year and investments in
the government and approved securities decelerated to 22.2% compared to the increase by 24.8% seen in
the previous year.
The slowdown in tax collection was pronounced since November 2008. In February 2009 gross tax collection
rose by 7% compared to 26.7% recorded in the previous year. The low collection rate was on account the low
corporate profits and tax concessions and reductions in the stimulus packages announced over time. The
total revenue loss due to tax reductions will be 0.2 % of GDP in 2008-09 and 0.5% of GDP in 2009-10. In the
19
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Overview on Indian Economy, Tourism Development
Chapter 2 and Creation of Wealth in the Last Decade
interim budget for 2009-10 the estimate for 2008-09 fiscal deficits was revised to 6.0 % of GDP as against
the budget estimates of 2.5%. Overall trade is in declining state due to dry up in international markets
cutting through all sectors. Merchandise exports posted negative growth in straight 5 months starting.
October 2008 during 2008-09 compared to the growth numbers of previous year. While several packages
for aiding the ailing exports reforms were announced by the government this year however the recent
numbers for February 2009 do not endorse any improvement. Foreign direct investment continues to
flow and was seen to be slightly impacted due to the global economic concerns. By end of February 2009
foreign direct investment received was USD 5 billion in excess of what was receive a year ago. FDI received
so far up to February 2009 was USD 31 billion. The overall investments shrank and were close to USD 18.5
billion when portfolio investments are included.
Forex reserves reduced sharply to USD 249 billion in February 2009. The reason of the sharp erosion in the
reserves were large outflows in the foreign investments from the equity markets and use of reserves in keeping
the Rupee from weakening apart from the valuation effects. The forex reserves maintained in February 2009
are enough for 10 months of import cover. Although it is felt that a further decline may raise concern. The
huge outflow in investments increased the dollar demand and exerted pressure on the Rupee to weaken to
52 against the USD. The Central Bank continues its struggle in keeping the rate of exchange below 50 and
stable. The average exchange rate against the USD in February 2009 was 49.22. (Investment & Technology
Promotion Division. 2009)
The current global crisis is likely to bring the Indian GDP growth rate down considerably. This will pose a big
challenge requiring urgent and sustained policy attention to prevent this downturn from becoming
unnecessarily prolonged. There is real downside risk that the growth rate could plummet to the pre-1980s
levels if appropriate countercyclical measures are not taken immediately and are not urgently followed by
necessary structural reforms.
In the recent budget, Rs. 1000 crores has been allocated to tourism and the breakup is highlighted in the
table 2.
20
Chapter 2
1. Secretariat-Economic Services 3451 ... 3.45 3.45 ... 3.74 3.74 ... 5.50 5.50
Tourism
2. Director General Tourism -
Direction & Administration 3452 25.00 39.64 64.64 25.00 43.43 68.43 14.00 50.00 64.00
3. Tourist Information & Publicity
3.01. Domestic Campaign 3452 65.00 0.20 65.20 65.00 0.18 65.18 54.00 0.20 54.20
3.02. Overseas Campaign 3452 220.00 ... 220.00 220.00 ... 220.00 250.00 ... 250.00
Total 285.00 0.20 285.20 285.00 0.18 285.18 304.00 0.20 304.20
4. Tourist Infrastructure 3452 ... ... ... ... ... ... 125.00 ... 125.00
3601 ... ... ... ... ... ... 306.00 ... 306.00
3602 ... ... ... ... ... ... 20.00 ... 20.00
5452 472.00 ... 472.00 472.00 ... 472.00 6.00 ... 6.00
Total 472.00 ... 472.00 472.00 ... 472.00 457.00 ... 457.00
5. Training 3452 71.00 0.80 71.80 71.00 0.72 71.72 103.00 10.80 113.80
3601 ... ... ... ... ... ... 3.00 ... 3.00
Total 71.00 0.80 71.80 71.00 0.72 71.72 106.00 10.80 116.80
6. Other expenditure 3452 47.00 2.41 49.41 47.00 2.01 49.01 19.00 3.00 22.00
7. Lumpsum provision for Project/
Scheme for the benefit of NE
Region and Sikkim 2552 11.00 ... 11.00 11.00 ... 11.00 100.00 ... 100.00
4552 89.00 ... 89.00 89.00 ... 89.00 ... ... ...
Total 100.00 ... 100.00 100.00 ... 100.00 100.00 ... 100.00
8. Miscellaneous General Services
- Loss by exchange 2075 ... 0. 50 0.50 ... 0.45 0.45 ... 0.50 0.50
Total-Tourism 1000.00 43.55 1043.55 1000.00 46.79 1046.79 1000.00 64.50 1064.50
Grand Total 1000.00 47.00 1047.00 1000.00 50.53 1050.53 1000.00 70.00 1070.00
C. Plan Layout Head of Budget IEBR Total Budget IEBR Total Budget IEBR Total
Source: indiabudget.nic.in
1. Secretariat-Economic Services
The provision is for meeting the expenditure on the Secretariat of Ministry of Tourism.
21
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Overview on Indian Economy, Tourism Development
Chapter 2 and Creation of Wealth in the Last Decade
of Tourism and the regional and field offices under it. Their main activities are dissemination of tourist
information, development of tourism infrastructural facilities, regulation of various segments of travel industry
such as hotels, travel agents, guides etc. It also includes provision for Information Technology.
4. Tourist Infrastructure
This provision relates to the expenditure on creation of Infrastructural facilities on construction of budget
accommodation, Wayside amenities, Tourist Reception Centers, refurbishment of monuments, Special Tourism
Projects, Adventure and Sports facilities, Sound and Light Shows, Illuminations of monuments, Providing for
improvement in solid waste management and sewerage management, improvement of surroundings, Signages,
Procurement of equipment directly related to Tourism and Rural Tourism projects etc. This provision also
relates to the Large Revenue Generating Projects, generating revenue through levy of fees or user charges
like Tourist Trains, Cruise vessels, Cruise terminals, Convention Centre, Golf Courses etc. and creation of land
bank for hotels to provide the hotel accommodation in the country by purchasing land and build hotels
through Public Private Partnerships. The provision also includes Externally Aided Projects (including UNDP
Endogenous Tourism Projects), Assistance to Central agencies for Tourism Infrastructural Development and
for Construction of Building of Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering at Gulmarg.
5. Training
Trained manpower is an essential feature for the development of tourism in the country. At present there are
35 Institutes of Hotel Management (IHMs) (includes 7 from the Private Sector) and 6 Food Craft Institutes
(FCIs), which are following courses of National Council for Hotel Management & Catering Technology (NCHMCT).
In addition, Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM) and the National Institute of Water
Sports (NIWS) are other bodies involved in manpower development in tourism. Besides this, regular courses
of various durations are conducted for fresh as well as existing service providers including guides, government
employees etc., posted at places of tourist interest, airports etc.
6. Other Expenditure
This provision is for payment of Interest subsidy as well as Capital subsidy on the loans advanced by the
Financial Institutions and to service news scheme of investment subsidy for construction of hotels, market
research and contributions to international bodies along with provision for payment of post closing adjustments
relating to disinvested India Tourism Development Corporation Hotels signed by parties with the Government
of India.
7. Lump-sum Provision for Projects/Schemes for the Benefits of NE Region and Sikkim
The availability of diverse tourism products in the North East offers a tremendous scope for the
development of tourism in the area.
22
Chapter 3
The results reveal strong performance for travel and tourism demand in India in 2008, growing at 7.3 per
cent. The long-term forecasts point to a continued solid phase of growth between 2009 and 2018, averaging
at 9.4 per cent per annum. The reports also says that while travel and tourism is expected to contribute 6.1
per cent to India’s national GDP, with no increase in the coming decade, the anticipated growth will create
30.5 million jobs in 2008, 6.4 per cent of total employment, rising to 40 million jobs,7.2 per cent of total
employment by 2018.(The Financial Express, 2008)
In order to develop tourism in India in a systematic manner, position it as a major engine of economic growth
and to harness its direct and multiplier effects for employment and poverty reduction in an
environmentally sustainable manner, the National Tourism Policy, broadly attempts to:-
• Position tourism as a major engine of economic growth
• Harness the direct and multiplier effects of tourism for employment generation, economic development
and providing impetus to rural tourism
• Focus on domestic tourism as a major driver of tourism growth
• Position India as a global brand to take advantage of the burgeoning global travel trade and the vast
untapped potential of India as a destination
• Acknowledges the critical role of private sector with government working as a pro-active facilitator and
catalyst
• Create and develop integrated tourism circuits based on India’s unique civilization, heritage, and culture
in partnership with States, private sector and other agencies
• Ensure that the tourist to India gets physically invigorated, mentally rejuvenated, culturally enriched,
spiritually elevated and “feel India from within”
The focus under this scheme is on improving the existing products and developing new tourism products to
world class standards. For infrastructure and product development, the MoT has been providing Central
Financial Assistance to the State Governments during the 9th Five Year Plan which resulted in strengthening of
the infrastructure and product development in the country. The scheme has been restructured during the
10th Five Year Plan to meet the present day infrastructure requirements. The past experience had been that a
large number of small projects had been funded under the Scheme, spreading the resources very thinly,
which at times had not created the desired impact. The focus in the Tenth Plan has been to fund large projects
of infrastructure or product development in an integrated manner.
Under the revised scheme, the destinations are carefully selected based on the tourism potential. Master
planning of these destinations is undertaken so as to develop them in an integrated holistic manner. The
23
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Indian Tourism Industry –
Chapter 3 An Outlook
master plan is supposed to tie up all backward and forward linkages, including environmental
considerations. Realizing the importance of destination development, the total outlay for this sector has
been increased substantially. Important tourist destinations in each State, in consultation with the State
Governments, are taken up for development. This includes activities ranging from preparation of master
plans to implementation of the master plans. The destinations are selected in consultation with the
State/UT Governments.
Under this Central Financial Assistance scheme the MoT has been extending assistance to States for
development of tourism infrastructure. Experience has shown that in the past funds under the CFA have
been used to fund a large number of small isolated projects, spread throughout the length and breadth of
the country resulting in the resources being spread very thinly. Therefore, in order to provide quick and
substantial impact, during the 10th Five Year Plan, this new scheme of Integrated Development of Tourist
Circuits has been taken up. The objective of the scheme is to identify tourist circuits in the country on an
annual basis, and develop them to international standards. The aim is to provide all infrastructure facilities
required by the tourists within these circuits. The MoT aims at convergence of resources and expertise through
coordinated action with States/Uts and private sector.
Scheme of Assistance for Large Revenue Generating Projects recognized that the development of tourism
infrastructure projects requires very large investment that may not be possible out of the budgetary resources
of the Government of India alone. In order to remove these shortcomings and to bring in private sector,
corporate and institutional resources as well as techno-managerial efficiencies, it is proposed to promote
large revenue generating projects for development of tourism infrastructure in public private partnerships
and in partnerships with other Government and Semi-Government agencies.
Large revenue generating project, which can be admissible for assistance under this scheme, should be a
project, which is also a tourist attraction, or used by tourists and generates revenue through a levy of fee or
user charges on the visitors. Projects like Tourist trains, Cruise vessels, Cruise Terminals, Convention Centers,
and Golf Courses etc. would qualify for assistance. However, this is only an illustrative list.
Hotel & Restaurant component will not be eligible for assistance under the scheme either on a stand-alone
basis or as an integral part of some other project. Besides hotel & restaurants, procurement of vehicles and
sports facilities like stadiums will also not be eligible for assistance under the scheme.
Development of infrastructure requires large investments that cannot be undertaken out of public financing
alone. Thus, in order to attract private capital as well as techno-managerial efficiencies associated with it, the
government is committed to promoting PPPs in infrastructure development. This scheme has been put
into effect for providing financial support to bridge the viability gap of infrastructure projects undertaken
through PPPs.
The Marketing Development Assistance Scheme (MDA), administered by the MoT, provides financial
support to approved tourism service providers (i.e. hoteliers, travel agents, tour operators, tourist transport
operators etc., whose turnover include foreign exchange earnings also) for undertaking the following
tourism promotional activities abroad:
24
Chapter 3
• Sales-cum-study tour
• Participation in fairs/exhibitions
• Publicity through printed material
During 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012) MoT proposed to continue supporting creation of world class
infrastructure in the country so that existing tourism products can be further improved and expanded to
meet new market requirements and enhance the competitiveness of India as a tourist destination. In
consultation with the State Governments and Uts the MoT have identified several tourist circuits and
destinations for integrated development.
Some of the important infrastructure projects which have been sanctioned in the recent times are:
Heritage Destinations/Circuits
• MoT has recently sanctioned Rs. 8.00 crore for the project of illumination/lighting of monuments in
Rajasthan.
• The tourist facilities at Sanchi and adjoining tourist places in Madhya Pradesh are being improved at a
cost of Rs. 4.64 crore. Tourist Facilitation Centre, Public Amenities, Parking and Landscaping and
Beautification of approach roads will be done.
• The project of Development of Mahanadi Central Heritage (Rs.3.94 crore) has been sanctioned. In this
project Jetties, River Bank, Nature Trail, picnic area, etc. will be developed at various places along the
river to enhance the experience of visitors to these destinations.
• An Indian Freedom Circuit on Mahatma’s Park in West Bengal is being developed at a cost of Rs.2.27
crore.
• The project Bijapur-Bidar-Gulbarg Circuit sanctioned at a cost of Rs. 6.40 crore.
• Art and Craft village at Goregaon film city has been sanctioned for an amount of Rs.3.86 crore.
• Revitalization of Gandhi Thidal and Craft Bazar, Puducherry sanctioned recently for an amount of Rs.2.67 crore.
• The project of Development of Srirangam Tamilnadu (Rs.3.72 lakh) has been sanctioned.
• Development of Vallore fort area at a cost of Rs.0.89 crore.
• Sound and Talatal Ghar, Sivasagar in Assam (Rs.1.58 crore.) has been sanctioned.
Ecotourism
• A project of Ecotourism for development of Horsely Hill in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh has
been sanctioned.
• The project of development of Satkosi in Orissa (Rs. 4.25 crore) has been sanctioned in which Interpretation
Centre, Landscaping, Elephant camps, Trekking park, Watch Towers and parking facilities, etc. are proposed
to be developed.
• MoT has sanctioned a project for development of Ecotourism in Morni-Pinjore Hills and Sultanpur
National Park in Haryana for which Rs. 2.63 crore have been sanctioned.
• The project of Integrated Development of Tribal Circuit with special focus on Ecotourism in Spiti in Himachal
Pradesh has been approved for Rs. 6.98 crore.
25
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Indian Tourism Industry –
Chapter 3 An Outlook
MoT has sanctioned a project for development of tourism infrastructure in Leh (Rs.4.95 crore), Bungus Valley
(Rs.2.31 crore), Kargil (Rs.4.84 crore), Poonch (Rs.4.50 crore), various villages around Sonmarg (Rs.1.08 crore),
development of Gurez and Telail Valley (Rs.3.66 crore), Patnitop (Rs.2.83 crore), Dandi Pora (3.45 crore),
Anantnag (Rs.2.1 crore), Shri Amarnath Yatra Marg (Rs.7.00 crore), Bhaderwah (Rs. 4.12 crore), Kishtwar (Rs.
2.81 crore), Wullar Lake (Rs.2.06 crore) and Rajouri (Rs.4.34 crore). Tourist Information Centre, Public amenities,
approach roads, shelters, signages , etc. will be developed in these projects so that tourists who are visiting
Jammu & Kashmir should have trouble free experience the beauty and bounty of the region.
MoT, government of India compiles monthly estimates of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) and Foreign Exchange
Earnings (FEE) from tourism on the basis of data received from major airports. Following are the important
highlights, as regards these two important indicators of tourism sector.
Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) from Tourism in Indian Rupee Terms and US $ Terms
• FEE during the month of August 2009 were Rs.4115 crore as compared to Rs.3626 crore in August 2008.
• FEE during January – August 2009 were Rs.33791 crore as compared to Rs.33321 crore in January –
August 2008.
• FEE in US $ terms during the month of August 2009 were US $ 851 million as compared to US $ 845
million in August 2008.
• FEE during January – August 2009 were US$ 6886 million as compared to US$ 8134 million during January
– August 2008
26
Chapter 3
27
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Indian Tourism Industry –
Chapter 3 An Outlook
In December, India saw 5.22 lakh FTAs, marginally higher than the 5.21 lakh FTAs in November. While the
foreign exchange earnings (FEE) of India from tourism for 2008 stood at Rs 50,730 crore, growing over
14.3% over Rs 44,360 crore in 2007, the FEE for December was Rs. 5,083 crore, as against Rs. 4,935 crore the
previous month and Rs. 5,079 crore in December, 2007.
However in the year that India felt the impact of the global economic slowdown as well as terror attacks
reflecting in cancellations in corporate as well as leisure travel, the number of foreign tourist arrivals or FTAs
for 2008 was 5.37 million, around 5.7% higher as compared to 5.08 million the previous year, according to
data received from major airports in India and released by the government.
In an effort to boost the confidence of visitors and tourists after the Mumbai attacks, the Union Ministry of
Tourism, India launched a new scheme ‘Visit India 2009’ offering various incentives to foreign tourists and
tourism industry. These value addition services will be offered to tourists visiting the country during the
period April 2009 – March 2010. The proposed incentives would offer one complimentary international air
passage for travelling companion, one night complimentary stay in the hotel booked by the traveller,
complimentary sightseeing in any one city of their choice and a complimentary rural eco holiday. The idea is
to provide one additional service for every service paid for, by the tourists with the help of top airlines and
organizations like Hotel Association of India (HAI) and Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO).
All three major airlines of the country — Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher —have joined this endeavour of
the government by providing the additional air passage for travelling companions. Furthermore, all member
hotels of the HAI will be offering the service of complimentary night stay in the hotel booked by the tourist.
Members of the IATO, an organization recognized by the MoT, will offer one complimentary local sightseeing
tour in any one of the cities visited by the tourist. The Department of Tourism also has plans to organize road
shows in countries like Singapore, Canada, UK, Japan and Australia, in joint venture with the IATO. The ongoing
year will see a rise in the advertisements and marketing through trade fairs and exhibitions to draw the
attention of foreign tourists from across the world.
28
Chapter 3
(II) World
• No. of International Tourist Arrivals 922 Million (P)
Annual Growth Rate 1.9%
• International Tourism Receipts US$ 944.0 Billion (P)
Annual Growth Rate 10.2%
29
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Indian Tourism Industry –
Chapter 3 An Outlook
India’s outbound travel market is small relative both to the country’s potential and to that of other large
generating countries in the region. It has nevertheless created great interest both among the travel trade in
India and in destinations overseas in view of the recent strength of the country’s economic performance, the
expanding middle class and the potential anticipated in a country with such a large population coupled with
the relative immaturity of its travel market.
With over 32 million valid passports, India outbound market is basically spread over four regions:
Over 8 million Indian Travellers travel overseas every year and this market is expected to grow by 10-15%
every year. By 2011 Indian outbound travel is expected to be 15.3 million.
Over 60% of Indians travel overseas for Business and 40% travel for leisure. With Nepal offering business as
well leisure options for the Indian traveller, this is indeed a very interesting market for Nepal.
P: Provisional
Source :- Bureau of Immigration ,Govt of India.
30
Chapter 3
12
No. of Indian National Departures (in Million) from India
10
0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
YEAR
Source :- Bureau of Immigration ,Govt of India.
Indians traditionally prefer to travel Far East and major short haul destinations are as follows:
Major long haul destinations include, USA (567,045), UK (337,000) and Australia (95,200) .These are essentially
business and Visiting Friends and Relatives destinations.
In 2008, India outbound tourism grew by 13% and there is an increasing preference towards Europe which
grew by 25%. The Americas, on the other hand, attracted only a modest 2% increase out of India.
31
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Indian Tourism Industry –
Chapter 3 An Outlook
32
Chapter 3
33
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Indian Tourism Industry –
Chapter 3 An Outlook
2. Indian Corporate travel is consistent year round, accompanied with leisure travel with associates and/or
family
3. India has a very strong VFR market. Significant number of students participating in advance education
programs (80,000 students) further stimulating VFR market
4. Indian FIT is fastest growing market
5. Group travellers primarily made up of first time travellers and seniors
6. Honeymoon market peaks November/ December and February/March
7. MICE travel is strong, but primarily benefits short haul travel sectors
1. Shopping
2. Food (Strong preference for Indian food)
3. Entertainment
4. Nightlife
5. Sightseeing
34
Chapter 4
Domestic tourism is also one of the most vibrant expressions of Indian heritage. It is the single unifying force,
which helps in achieving understanding between various linguistic, religious and communal groups living in
different parts of the country. In the contemporary India, the phenomenon of domestic tourism with its
vibrant and changing dimensions can be expected to make an even greater contribution toward strengthening
the fabric of the unity of India.
Despite its great significance in the national integration and development, domestic tourism has not received
adequate attention in the process of development planning. However, there has been the almost unobtrusive
and yet inexorable rise of domestic tourism in the Indian context.
The average Indian is also an avid sightseer and can travel thousands of miles to different environments. A
significant pointer to this is travel during the summer months, a time when most foreign tourists avoid India.
The bulk of the affluent middle class, however, flock to the tourist stations of the Himalayas and test the
carrying capacity of these resorts to the maximum. Even in winter, the Indian traveller is on the move, targeting
seaside resorts, forests sanctuaries, desert safaris and historical monuments for special attention. Domestic
tourism is also fuelled by business travel to various parts of the country, as also by agriculture demands.
Domestic tourism is as old as the Indian society. According to available statistics, domestic tourism has grown
substantially during the last one decade. It increased to 167 million in 1998 from just 64 million in 1990, thus
registering a compound annual growth of 12.8 per cent. The growth of inbound tourism since Independence
has been quite impressive. It was just around 17 thousand in 1951. From this level it rose to 2.36 million in
1998. Tourism receipts on the other hand have grown at a phenomenal rate of 17 per cent to Rs.11,540 crore
in 1998 from Rs.7.7 crore in 1951.
Travel and tourism in India experienced another year of encouraging development in 2007. There was
impressive growth in the number of domestic trips taken as well as in the number of arrivals and departures
owing in part to aggressive international advertising and promotion through the Incredible India! Campaign.
Both the central government and state governments have been pro-active in terms of marketing in order to
showcase their various tourism products. Furthermore, niches categories such as medical tourism and
adventure tourism proved popular in 2007, which combined with improvements to infrastructure and the
continued popularity of low cost carriers among other things, helped to boost travel and tourism in India.
Gone are the days when domestic tourism in India was synonymous with pilgrimages or visits to friends and
relatives. Driven by rising incomes, an increased standard of living and improved land, rail and air transportation,
more people in 2007 went on domestic trips. Also, with improved information technology reaching all corners
35
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Domestic Tourism
Chapter 4 in India
of the country, people have begun to take domestic trips more frequently. The Indian Railways have
played a vital role in providing better connectivity as has the government’s pitomizedn and open skies
policy, which led to the introduction of low cost carriers and which thus made domestic air travel affordable
to a greater number of domestic tourists.
A low cost airline or carrier is one that proffers air travel at normally very low rates by cutting down on
expensive customary in-flight passenger services. These low cost carriers are often also referred to as no-frills
airlines. The concept originally incepted in the United States in the early 1990s. While Richard Branson of
Virgin Airlines was the forerunner in Britain, Qantas occupied a huge portion of the Australian budget skies.
It was in a matter of sometime before the Indian airline industry too caught up on this trend. It was the Air
Deccan, which introduced the budget flight model to Indian skies in 2003. The development of low cost
carriers has resulted in an incredible amount of choice for Indian travelers and has enabled many more middle-
income consumers to afford to fly for business as well as leisure purposes.
With the air fare almost reduced to that of train fare, the inception of no-frills airlines unleashed a fierce cut-
throat competition in the Indian aviation scenario like never before. In order to grab a bigger pie in the
suddenly escalating numbers of train commuters turning towards air travel, all leading domestic airlines slashed
their fare rates and unveiled Advanced Purchase schemes (Apex) to take on the new challenger.
The present list of low cost airlines in India includes Spice Jet, Go Air, Indigo, Jet Lite, and Air India Express.
Since the Indian air industry still remains largely under-penetrated, there’s a lot of scope for the growth in
this sector. The budget carriers keep coming up with new ideas and incentives to grow their customer base.
The budget airline industry in India is expected to grow significantly in coming years.
Various categories of travel and tourism have benefited from the boom in travel and tourism in India. Players
in hotels have experienced high rates of occupancy and room rates have increased in all categories of hotels.
In travel retail, travel agents have benefited from demand for new travel packages and new products as well
as new destinations among increasingly demanding domestic tourists. New opportunities have also arisen to
offer niche tourism products such as adventure tourism and spa tourism packages.
Indian Travel Trade is mainly unorganized and no license is required for this sector. Over 7000 Travel agents
are spread all over India and over 50 tour operators mainly create packages. The travel trade in India remains
reactive and last minute. Most travel agents in India are only ticketing agents focussing on the lower end of
the market.
The top 10 agents of most airlines are consolidators, operating on high volume and low margins through a
network of sub-agents. There are about 30 wholesalers but their primary focus tends to be closed groups for
Europe. The emergence of agencies servicing the individual traveller for their travel-related services is a
relatively new phenomenon, though some incentive and business agents control the bulk of the market.
36
Chapter 4
• Indian consumers have a short lead-time for booking their holidays ranging from three to six weeks on
average.
• Whilst the Indians are seasoned travellers they still prefer to pre-plan their itineraries prior to travel.
• Most consumers will book through a retail travel agent rather than direct.
• The Internet is an emerging source for sales of tour packages but is still very small to date. There has
been an increase in the usage of the Internet to research and gather information for travel – a trend that
is expected to continue. Latest figures indicate that India as on September 2008 had 45.3 million active
internet users. (IAMAI, 2009).However most of that usage is emails or bookings for low cost carriers or
rail tickets.
• The distribution of travel product in India is fragmented and predominantly retail based. There are a few
national companies, however most agents are small, independent businesses.
• Competition between the larger travel agencies is fierce, with aggressive marketing and tactical promotions
in print media. Examples include ‘buy now, pay later’ promotions or ‘cash back’ schemes.
• The traditional wholesaler has not generally developed in the Indian travel industry, although a few larger
travel agents are pursuing the development of their own distribution network via smaller independent
agents. However, there is at least one major traditional wholesaler with significant support from the
smaller retail agents.
• Large travel agencies take reservations from consumers through their own retail networks as well as
from smaller agencies.
Wholesalers/Large Agents
Commission Level: 15 %
Retail Agents
Commission Level: 10%
37
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Domestic Tourism
Chapter 4 in India
India is a vast country with over 1,000 million inhabitants. It contains a huge diversity of peoples, cultures,
regions, economic characteristics and areas of prosperity and poverty.
India’s domestic tourism is a huge market in itself and offers myriad exciting experiences to tourists. Indian
tourism is one of the most diverse products on the global scene. India has 26 world heritage sites. It is divided
into 25 bio-geographic zones and has wide ranging eco tourism products. Apart from this India has a 6,000 km
coastline and dozens of beaches. India’s great ethnic diversity translates into a wide variety of cuisine and
culture. India also has a large number of villages, plantations and adventure locations. India is home to a great
variety of wildlife and its reserves are well known throughout the world.
Tourism industry in India is being utilized as a powerful tool to facilitate county understanding and enable
building of broader cultural horizons. According to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009 brought
out by World Economic Forum, India is ranked 11th in the Asia-Pacific region and 62nd overall in a list of 133
assessed countries in 2008, up three places since 2007. In terms of travel, India stands 9th in the index of
relative cost of access (ticket taxes and airport charges) to international air transport services, having almost
the lowest costs in the world.
Also according to the report, India has been rated well for its natural resources (ranked 14th) and cultural
resources (24th), with many World Heritage Sites, both natural and cultural, rich fauna, and strong creative
industries in the country. India also has quite a good air transport network (ranked 37th), particularly given the
country’s stage of development, and a reasonable ground transport infrastructure (ranked 49th). India is ranked
7th in terms of number of World Heritage Cultural Sites, according to a UNESCO report (2008).The World
Travel and Tourism Report for 2009 for 180 countries worldwide also ranks the Indian Travel and Tourism
economy 14th in absolute size worldwide, 144th in relative contribution to national economies and 5th in long-
term (10-year) growth.
The report also states that real GDP growth for travel and tourism economy is expected to be 0.2 per cent in
2009 and to an average 7.7 per cent per annum over the coming 10 years. Export earnings from international
visitors and tourism goods are expected to generate 6.0 per cent of total exports (almost US$ 16.9 billion) in
2009, growing (nominal terms) to US$ 51.4 billion in 2019.
The contribution of travel and tourism to India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to be at 6.0 per
cent (US$ 67.3 billion) in 2009 rising to US$ 187.3 billion by 2019. It is clear that domestic tourism is far
greater in volume than foreign tourism. It is from domestic tourism that the larger impact on India’s economy
is thus likely to be derived. Statistical measures of domestic travel indicate that, in 2006, there were 462
million arrivals recorded in states within India by Indian nationals and by 2008 it rose to over 562 million
arrivals. (World Economic Forum 2009)
38
Chapter 4
600
No. of Domestic Tourists Visits to States/UTs (in Million)
500
400
300
200
100
0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
YEAR
39
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Domestic Tourism
Chapter 4 in India
40
Chapter 4
41
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Domestic Tourism
Chapter 4 in India
As per the study conducted for MoT & Culture, Indian Domestic Tourism can be profiled as follows:
• Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are the five highest ranked
states in terms of share in total tourist households in the country.
• Top five states with respect to number of tourist households per 1000 households are Delhi, Rajasthan,
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh.
• Karnataka has the highest percentage of Business Travel and Leisure Holiday trips, and Uttar Pradesh
ranks first in the social and other trips categories.
• Top five states ranked according to trips per 1000 tourist households are Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka,
Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
• Middle-income households represent the highest percent of trips in each category of travel by purpose
as well as for all trips taken together.
• The major mode of transport for tourist trips in the country is by bus, representing at least 70 percent of
all trips across all purposes of travel. Together bus and train account for at least 90 percent of trips in
each category of travel.
• Middle income households constituted over 45% of the total tourist households at the aggregate level.
• Average number of trips per household in the country was 1.17 and average number of trips per tourist
household was 2.64.
• Travel for social purposes accounted for the largest percentage of trips in both urban and rural areas.
• Social travel is relatively uniformly distributed regionally across the country.
• Regional distribution of trips shows the Southern region as dominant in accounting for most types of
trips classified by purpose of travel, followed by the northern region. (National Council for Applied
Economic Research (NCAER) ,2003)
The top 5 States in domestic tourist visits in 2008 were Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan
and Madhya Pradesh with their respective shares being 23.6 %, 22.2%, 17.5%, 5% and 3.9%. These 5 States
accounted for about 72.2% of the total domestic tourist visits in the country. In respect of foreign tourist visits
in 2007, the top 5 States/Uts were Delhi (15.3%), Maharashtra (14.6%), Tamil Nadu (13.3%) Uttar Pradesh
(11.3%) and Rajasthan (10.6%), with the total share of these States/Uts being 65.1%.(MoT India.2008)
42
Chapter 4
43
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Domestic Tourism
Chapter 4 in India
Taj Mahal in Agra is the most popular monument in India, attracting over 3 million visitors a year. Taj Mahal
was visited by an estimated 2 .6 Million domestic tourists in 2007.
The 17th century Red Fort in Delhi was the second most visited monument in the country and 2.2 million
tourists visited Red Fort in Delhi.
The Qutub Minar, known as the tallest brick minaret in the world built here in the 14th century, is the third
most preferred monument among domestic tourists. An estimated 2 million domestic tourists visited it in
2007.
Among the 10 other most famous monuments popular with domestic tourists Purana Quila (Delhi), Bibi-Ka-
Maqbara (Maharashtra) and Mamallapuram (Tamil Nadu) etc.
44
Chapter 4
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh is the third largest state in India with an area of 275,000 sq. km. A state in the southern
region of India, Andhra Pradesh is bordered on the south by Tamil Nadu state, on the west by Karnataka state,
on the north and northwest by Maharashtra state, on the northeast by Madhya Pradesh and Orissa states,
and on the east by the Bay of Bengal. The northern area of Andhra Pradesh is mountainous. Andhra Pradesh
has valuable gifts that nature has endowed it with — a long coastline bordered by clean beaches, hills, forests
and a meteorologically and socially pleasant climate.
Tirupati
Tirupati is the most popular destination in India. Tirupati is a world in itself, millions of pilgrims from all over
India and abroad visit the temple of Lord Venkateswara at Tirupati round the year. In addition to various
shrines scattered all over Tirupati and beyond there are holy water falls, scared rivers and archaeological
wonders. It is regarded as one of the most ancient temples which were mentioned in Puranas and Sastras.
The temple is patronized by the Pallavas, Cholas, Pandyas, the Vijayanagar Rulers and the later kings of Mysore.
Hastakalaramam Papanasanam, Akasganga, Gogarbham, Shilathoranam, View Point, S.V. Museum are the
other places worth seeing at Tirumala. Kapilatheetham, Hare Rama Hare Krishna Mandir, Regional Science
Centre, S.V.Zoological Park, Srinivasa Mangapuram, Kalyani Dam, Chandragiri Fort, Tiruchanur, Govindaraja
Swamy Temple are the other places worth seeing in and around Tirupathi
Hyderabad
Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, is the fifth largest cosmopolitan city in India. The City thrives with a
variety of cultures intermingled into an astounding culture that gives it a distinct identity of its own. This is
where tradition fuses with modernity, and heritage structures vie with modern high-rise buildings to add to the
beauty of the city. Hyderabad offers a variety of tourist attractions ranging from Heritage monuments, Lakes and
Parks, Gardens and Resorts, Museums to delectable cuisine and a delightful shopping experience. The city of
Hyderabad is a shopper’s delight. From the world famous pearls to traditional arts & crafts, from textiles of all
modern brand names to ethnic wear, the city offers an astounding variety of shopping. Hyderabad is famous
world over for its fabulous diamond markets, glass embedded bangles and the delectable “Hyderabadi Cuisine”.
MICE Industry
Hyderabad, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh is home to world-class convention centers of all varieties. It has
the perfect balance between large centers, which can accommodate thousands of participants and small and
medium-size meeting rooms for small scale gatherings. The fact that these convention centers are easily
accessible from five star hotels as well as shopping centers, resorts and theme parks, is an added appeal, as it
allows participants to mix business with pleasure.
Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) is South Asia’s first truly world class convention centre
located in Hyderabad- the burgeoning business hub of India, This first ever purpose built facility in the country
has been conceptualized, designed and created to hold events for people between 50 and 5000. HICC offers
state-of-the-art facilities that are comparable to the world’s best convention centers across the globe. Built
across a 15-acre landscaped environment, HICC has an internal hall measuring 6,480 square meters that can
be partitioned into six smaller halls. HICC offers to be an ideal venue for a host of events – conventions,
conferences, seminars, entertainment shows, parties, weddings, etc. to name a few.
45
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Domestic Tourism
Chapter 4 in India
HITEX
HITEX serves as a one-stop resource, providing the right setting for international expositions, trade shows,
conferences and other corporate events. HITEX provides, three indoor Exhibition Halls – 3500 sq.m. (37,660
sq.ft./hall) Open Exhibition Area – 32,825 sq.m (353,197 sq.ft ) Trade Fair Office Building, Entrance Plaza
(housing Registration and Ticketing Counters), Car Parking (1200 cars), Conference Facilities include meeting
rooms, organizer’s office, VIP lounge, media centre and also houses services including a business centre, a
restaurant, travel and forex centre, bank ATM, car rentals, florist, photo studio, and more.
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh has the largest number of Tourist destinations that are religious, cultural, historical and full of
natural beauty.
There are several Tourist circuits which are popular for Domestic Tourism:
• Buddhist Circuit • Water Cruise Circuit
• Bundelkhand Circuit • Jain Shrines Circuit
• Braj (Agra-Mathura) Circuit • Sikh Panth Circuit
• Awadh Circuit • Eco-Tourism Circuit
• Vindhya Circuit
Agra
Taj Mahal was completed in 1653 A.D.. It was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as the final resting
place for his favourite Queen, Mumtaz. Finished in by Marble, it is perhaps India most fascinating and beautiful
monument. This perfectly symmetrical monument took 22 years (1630-1652) of hard labor and 20,000 workers,
Masons and Jewelers to built and is set amidst landscaped gardens. Built by the Persian architect, Ustad Isa,
The Taj Mahal the bank of the Yamuna river. It can be observed like a Mirage from the Agra Fort from where
Emperor Shah Jahan stared at it, for the last eight years his life as a prisoner of his son Aurangzeb. The fort is
crescent shaped, flattened on the east with a long, nearly straight wall facing the river.
It is a masterpiece of symmetry, seeming to be floating in the air from a distance, and each revealed as an
illusion experienced as one enters through the main gate.
The verses of Holy Koran as inscribed on it and at the top of gate 22 small domes, signifying the number of
years the monument took to built. The Taj Mahal has been built on a Marvel Platform that stands above a
standstone one. The most elegant dome of the Taj, with diameter of 60 feets, rises 80 feets, over the building
and directly under the dome is the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. Shah Jahan’s tomb has been erected next to her’s
by his son Aurangzeb. Fantastic inlay works using semi-precious stones decorate and interiors.
46
Chapter 4
Fatehpur Sikri
Fatehpur Sikri is an epic in red sandstone. A city of yesteryear today lost in the mists of time. Fatehpur
Sikri was built by the Mughal Emperor Akbar during 1564 A.D. Mughal Emperor Akbar had no heir. He
visited holy men to enlist their prayers for his son. When he visited Sheikh Salim Chishti who was living at
the village of Sikri the saint foretold the emperor that he would be blessed with a son. When his son was
born, he is gratitude, constructed his capital city and named it Fatehpur Sikri. Later, due to shortage of
water and unrest in North-West, Akbar has to abandon this city. The beautiful marvel tomb of Sheikh
Salim Chishti still attracts thousands who seek blessings of the revered saint. Other renowned places are
Dewane-e-Am, Dewane-e-Khaas, Buland Darwaja, Panch Mahal, Jodha Bai Palace and Birbal Bhawan.
Fatehpur Sikri is about 39 K.M. from Agra.
Varanasi
Varanasi, situated in the mid northern plains of India on the banks of holy river Ganga, has been the capital
city of oriental learning since time immemorial and has produced great poets, writers, musicians and scholars.
Varanasi, is one of the oldest living cities in the world. This is holy city for Hindus as it is said to be presided
over by Lord Shiva. The famous Vishwanath temple is located at its central place and large numbers of other
temples are spread all over the city. Varanasi is famous for its hoary rich traditions, narrow lanes, cultural
activities, magnificent temples, enchanting ghats, and many other attractions. Apart from being an important
centre of Hinduism and Buddhism, it is also an important centre of learning and tourism. Varanasi is famous
for silk fabrics, perfumes, artistic brass and copper wares.
Sarnath
Sarnath renowned for ancient remains of Buddhist stupas, monasteries and temples, is situated at a distance
of 6 kms to the north of Varanasi city which is well connected by road, rail & air. Sarnath is one of the four
most important Buddhist pilgrimage centers of India. Buddha, the great sage , after attaining enlightenment
(Buddha-hood) at Bodh Gaya came to Sarnath and delivered his first sermon to five disciples(i.e. Kaundinya,
Bashpa, Bhadrika, Mahanaman and Ashvajit) for redeeming humanity. It is this place where foundation of a
new order of monks (Sangha) and a new order of religion doctrine (Dhamma) was laid. Sarnath is also sacred
to the Jains because they look upon it as the site of asceticism and death of Shreyamshanath, the 11th
Trithankara.
Mathura Vrindavan
The City of Mathura, in Uttar Pradesh, the nucleus of Brajbhoomi, is located at a distance of 145 km south-
east of Delhi and 58 km north-west of Agra. Covering an area of about 3,800 sq. km., today, Brajbhoomi can
be divided into two distinct units – the eastern part in the trans-Yamuna tract with places like Gokul, Mahavan,
Baldeo, Mat and Bajna and the western side of the Yamuna covering the Mathura region that encompasses
Vrindavan, Govardhan, Kusum Sarovar, Barsana and Nandgaon. The land of Braj starts from Kotban near
Hodel about 95 km from Delhi and ends at Runakuta which is known specially for its association with the poet
Surdas, an ardent Krishna devotee.
Shri Krishna, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, was born in the Dwapara Yuga as the eighth son of the Yadava
prince Vasudev and his wife Devaki. To save him from the murderous intentions of his maternal uncle Kansa,
the ruler of Mathura, the infant Krishna was spirited away soon after birth to Gokul, the village of the
gopas (cowherds) in Braj (their pastureland). It was here that he grew to manhood, in the tender care of
his foster parents Nand and Yashoda in the happy company of the cowherds.
47
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Domestic Tourism
Chapter 4 in India
Vrindavan
Vrindavan, just 15 km from Mathura, is another major place of pilgrimage. It is noted for its numerous
temples – both old and modern. The name Vrindavan evokes the playfulness and lovable characteristics
of Shri Krishna. This is the wood where he frolicked with the gopis and tenderly wooed Radha. Vrindavan
today, is noted for its numerous temples. It is understood that Mathura City is the transcendental abode
of Lord Krishna. It is not an ordinary material city, for it is eternally connected with the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. Vrindavan is within the jurisdiction of Mathura and still continues to exist. Because Mathura
and Vrindavan are intimately connected with Krishna eternally.
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is the land of the Tamils and it has a history that dates back to several thousand years. It is a land
where traditions and culture blend and continue to live in harmony. The state abounds in monuments and
temples that are ancient and each has its own story of religious, artistic and cultural accomplishment .Tamil
Nadu has a long coastline that stretches nearly a 1000 kms. The Coromandel Coast, along the Bay of Bengal,
boasts of many ideal locations for sun and surf. Golden sands of the beach are dotted with coconut palm and
pitomized groves. The sea washes ashore pebbles and shells and the gentle breeze sways the yachts and
catamarans into the deeper waters of the sea and the waters form small dunes on the shore Sea gulls hover
in the sky and then rest on the sails of the fishing boats. There are many more breathtaking sights that will
please you and hold you spell bound in Tamil Nadu.
Chennai
This metropolis is often called the cultural capital of India for its deep-rooted traditions and long heritage.
Chennai is a city younger than its image. More than any other city in India, it is a true reflection of this
country’s diversity. In a time span of just over 350 years, Chennai has blossomed into a charming city that has
a large heart and is very welcoming. It is city that encourages all forms of development, both modern technology
and the traditional arts and crafts, and it embraces a series of paradoxes. In 1639 Francis Day and Andrew
Cogan, agents for the English East India Company, acquired a strip of land on lease from the Vijayanagar King.
They built the Fort St.George, which remains till date city’s important landmarks and serves as the Government
Secretariat today. It was built to set up a factory that served as a nucleus for British settlements that began to
be formed. Surrounding villages like Triplicane, Purasawalkam, Egmore and Chetput slowly merged with the
new developments, to form Chennapatnam, as it was known. The city was called Madras till 1996 and then
renamed Chennai. Today this buoyant metropolis is a blend of the old and the new, the traditional and the
modern.
Kanniyakumari
Described as the southernmost end of Tamil Nadu, the land’s end of India or the point where the three seas
meet, enchanting Kanniyakumari or Cape Comorin is one of the most popular tourist spots in the state. Part
of the fascination is of course due to the fact that it is the very tip of the Indian peninsula and the confluence
of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Nature is so spectacular at Kanniyakumari that
several other Indian beaches seen pale by comparison. Cape Comorin is at its best during Chitra Pournami
(the full moon day in April) when the sun and moon are face to face on the same horizon but other full moon
days are also special and you can see the sun set and the moon rise almost simultaneously. It seems as if it is
by prior arrangement. Kanniyakumari is 705 kms from Chennai.
48
Chapter 4
Rameswaram
Rameswaram is a small island in the Gulf of Mannar, is a major pilgrim centre. It is connected to the
mainland by road and railway bridges. Rameswaram is a holy place because Sri Rama, on his return from
Sri Lanka, offered his thanks to Lord Shiva and performed pooja to wash away his sin in killing the Demon
King, Ravana. Rameswaram is known for its 22 theerthas or wells in and around the main temple. This
place is equally sacred to both Vaishnavites and Shaivites. According to Hindu Mythology, if one visits
Rameswaram and prays to Lord Shiva one will be relieved of one’s sins. It is 197 metres long.The
Ramanathaswamy temple is renowned for its magnificent corridors and massive sculptured pillars. The
third corridor of Ramanathaswamy temple is the longest one in the world.
Madurai
Madurai is known as Athens of the East, Madurai is a place of great historical and cultural importance. It is the
oldest city in Tamil Nadu and Madurai lies on the banks of the River Vaigai. Madurai is one of the liveliest cities
in South India it was originally known as Kadambavanam or the “forest of Kadamba” or the Nauclea kadamba.
Legend says that Lord Shiva appeared in the dream on the king, Kulasekhara Pandya. The king was amazed to
see drops of nectar or madhu falling down of earth from Lord Shiva’s matted hair. The “madhu” was so sweet
that the place where it fell came to be known as Madhurapuri, which in course of time became “Madurai.”
Tamil and Greek documents record its existence from the 4th century B.C. Being in the heart of Tamil Nadu,
Madurai has fostered an essentially Dravidian and Tamil culture. Famous for its cultural and scholarly pursuits,
the city had an academy consisting of critics, poets and savants highly esteemed both by kings and commoners.
It was in Madurai that three successful conferences of Tamil scholars called sangams flourished under
benevolent royal support.
Madurai is famous for housing one of the five traditional dance halls where Lord Shiva, in his form as the
Silver Hall or the Velli Ambalam. It is situated within the Meenakshi Temple. Madurai was the capital of the
dynasty. The Meenakshi-Sundareswarar Shrine is its central glory. The Muslims invaded Madurai in the 14th
Century. Later it came under the rule of the Nayaks, and the rule of Thirumalai Nayak, who is remembered as
the maker of modern Madurai, was an eventful one.
Madurai was known to be the centre of learning and pilgrimage for centuries. Today, Madurai is a modern
commercial and industrial city, with a vast University campus and is renowned for its weaving mills and dyeing
industry. The chungadi cotton sarees are the specialty of this city with its colourful tie and dye motifs.
Handicrafts, brassware, bronze items and the famous wooden toys of Madurai are some of the notable artifacts.
Madurai is 450 kms from Chennai.
Mamallapuram
Though it is no longer a port, Mamallapuram has retained its fame in stone, thanks to the great contribution
of Pallava artisans. It is among the most outstanding examples of Dravidian art and architecture and a jewel
in the crown of Tamil Nadu. In a land that is liberally strewn with some of the best in temple art, Mamallapuram
holds its own, and stands as a silent yet eloquent witness to the glory of its creators. Unfortunately most of
the work was left incomplete, and time and nature have also eroded the remains of this once great port.
Mamallapuram’s wonders in rock leave visitors enthralled, conveying as they do, an impression of beauty and
harmony. The monuments are floodlit at night and so it is possible to enjoy their beauty even after sunset.
The Mamallapuram dance festival is conducted every year during Dec-Jan. It is a month long festival and
dances take place during the weekends. Classical dances such as Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, Mohini
Attam, Odissi, Kathak etc., are performed by well-known exponents of the art.
49
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Domestic Tourism
Chapter 4 in India
Karnataka
Bangalore
Located 949m above sea level in South India on the Deccan Plateau, Bangalore enjoys a salubrious climate
throughout the year. The city boasts of spacious gardens, parks, tree-lined avenues, a profusion of flowering
trees, lakes, parks earning it the sobriquet of “Garden City.” The once-sedate cantonment settlement of the
British has now spread way beyond the mud fort and the four towers constructed by Kempegowda in 1537.
With its booming economy and racy lifestyle, the capital of Karnataka has metamorphosed from a sleepy
Garden City into one of India’s fastest growing, accommodating, technophiliac, and cosmopolitan cities.
Surrounded by weekend getaways, Bangalore makes an ideal hub for visitors who want to travel to the many
hill stations and coastal towns of South India.
Mysore
Known for its magnificent palaces and majestic buildings, sprawling gardens and tree- lined boulevards,
shimmering silks and sandalwood, the ‘City Royale’ always figures in the tourist’s itinerary. It conjures up
visions and memories of the resplendent glory of the illustrious Wodeyar Kings. This former state capital is a
seamless blend of old-world charm and modernity. It retains its tradition in music and dance, art and literature,
and time-honoured crafts. Mysore today, is a pleasant and growing city in Karnataka with an old world charm,
owing to its broad avenues, picturesque gardens, exceptional edifices and a salubrious climate.
Karnataka’s forests and wildlife are her priceless natural heritage. The State boasts of some of the largest
jungle tracts south of the Vindhyas. From the majestic evergreen forests of the Western Ghats to the scrub
jungles of the plains, a wide variety of habitats teem with diverse flora and fauna, some of them endemic to
the region. Some of these jungles were the private preserves of former rulers. Thanks to their protection,
these jungles have survived. However, some of the lesser-known ones are sanctuaries protected by the local
populace.
It is one of India’s best known protected areas and is an important Project Tiger reserve. It is located in the
Chamarajanagar district of southern Karnataka in South India, and is contiguous with the Mudumalai National
Park in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu, the Wynad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala, and the Nagarhole
National Park to the northwest. It is home to around seventy tigers and over three thousand Asian elephants
(as per the 1997 census [2]), along with leopards, dholes, gaur and sloth bears. Bandipur is part of the Nilgiri
Biosphere Reserve.
The exclusive hunting reserve of the former rulers of Mysore, the park has rich forest cover, small streams,
valleys, and waterfalls. It stretches over 640 km², protecting the wildlife of Karnataka. Together with the
adjoining Bandipur National Park (870 km²) and Mudumalai National Park (320 km²), it forms the largest
protected area in southern India.
B R Hills Sanctuary:
A unique blend of hill resort and wildlife sanctuary. The hills take their name from the ancient Ranganatha
Swamy Temple that sits at the edge of a granite precipice with a drop of more than 1000 ft.
50
Chapter 4
Karnataka abounds in a torrent of sparkling waterfalls set amidst the sylvan environs of the districts of Kodagu
and Uttara Kannada. West-flowing rivers gush through thick forests in coastal Uttara Kannada, breaking
into streams that meander over hilly tracts to end in a series of dramatic, plunging finales throughout the
region.
Jog Falls
Bear witness to nature’s headlong tumble as the Sharavati river makes a spectacular drop of 810ft. (253m) in
four distinct cascades – known locally as Raja, Rani, Rover, and Rocket – to create the highest falls in Asia.
Rajasthan
Folklore of heroism and romance resound from the formidable monuments that majestically stand to tell the
tale of a bygone era. The magic of vibrant Rajasthan – its rich heritage, colourful culture, exciting desert
safaris, shining sand-dunes, amazing variety lush forests and varied wildlife – makes it a destination nonpareil.
Rajasthan is often portrayed as one vast open-air museum, with its relics so well preserved that it delights
even the most skeptical traveler.
It is an incredible destination for the outdoor-tourist – take a safari on horses, camels, elephants or even in
jeeps, with the Aravalis – India’s oldest mountain range as the backdrop. Feast your eyes on spectacular sand-
dunes, take the tiger trail, or just watch the birds in the wetlands. You can also choose to pamper yourself in
the lavish heritage properties. Rajasthan has something for everyone. One just has to choose an activity
appropriate to one’s temperament.
Ajmer
South west of Jaipur, Ajmer is an oasis wrapped in the green hills. The city was founded by Raja Ajay Pal
Chauhan in the 7th Century A.D. and continued to be a major centre of the Chauhan power till 1193 A.D. Then
Prithviraj Chauhan lost it to Mohammed Ghori, after which Ajmer became home to many dynasties. Today,
Ajmer is a popular pilgrimage centre for the Muslims as well as Hindus. Especially famous is the Dargah
Sharif-tomb of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, which is equally revered both by the Hindus and the
Muslims. Ajmer is a centre of culture and education. The British chose Ajmer for its prestigious Mayo College,
a school exclusively for Indian nobility at one time. However, now it is one of the best public schools in the
country. Ajmer is also the base for visiting Pushkar (14 km.) which has the distinction of having the only
Brahma temple in the world. The Picturesque Pushkar Lake is a sacred spot for Hindus. During the month of
Kartik (Oct/Nov), devotees throng in large numbers to take a dip in the sacred lake.
Jaipur
Jaipur is 260 km from Delhi and 240 km from Agra and forms the golden triangle of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. It
a bustling capital city and a business centre with all the trappings of a modern metropolis but yet flavoured
strongly with an age-old charm that never fails to surprise a traveler. The old Jaipur painted in Pink can grip
any visitor with admiration. Stunning backdrop of ancient forts: Nahargarh, Amer, Jaigarh and Moti Doongari
are apt testimonials of the bygone era and a reminder of their lingering romance and chivalry.
51
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Domestic Tourism
Chapter 4 in India
Udaipur
Udaipur is often called ‘Venice of the East’. It is also the ‘city of lakes’. The Lake Palace (Jag Niwas) located
in the middle of Pichola Lake is the finest example of architectural and cultural marvel. The grand City
Palace on the banks of the lake along with the Monsoon Palace (Sajjan Garh) on the hill above enhances
the beauty of this magnificent city. Udaipur is also the centre for performing arts, crafts and its famed
miniature paintings. The Shilpgram festival is a great crowd-puller on new year.
Maharana Udai Singh founded Udaipur in 1559 AD. According to a legend Udai Singh was guided by a holy
man meditating on the hill near Pichola Lake to establish his capital on that very spot. Surrounded by Aravali
Ranges, forests and lakes made this place less vulnerable to external invasion than Chittaurgarh. Maharana
Udai Singh died in 1572 and was succeeded by Maharana Pratap who valiantly defended Udaipur from Mughal
attacks. Maharana Pratap is the most revered Rajput icon who gallantly fought the Mughals at the battle of
Haldighati in 1576. Mewar continuously defied foreign invaders and has a history of bloody battles until the
British intervention in the nineteenth century when a treaty was signed to protect Udaipur. Upon independence,
Udaipur merged with the union of India.
Jodhpur
This bustling desert city is the second largest in Rajasthan after Jaipur. It was founded by Rao Jodha, the
leader of the Rathore clan, in 1459 AD. The mammoth, imposing fortress (Meherangarh) has a landscape
dominating a rocky ridge with the eight gates leading out of fortress. The new city is outside the structure.
Jaiselmer
The name Jaisalmer evokes utter magic and vibrancy of the desert. It’s straight out of an Arabian Nights fable.
The hostile terrain notwithstanding the warmth and colour of people is simply overwhelming. One of the
main draws is the daunting 12th century Jaisalmer Fort. The beautiful havelis which were built by wealthy
merchants of Jaisalmer are yet another interesting aspect of the desert city. The desert citadel is truly a
golden fantasy in the Thar Desert. Bhati Rajput ruler Rawal Jaisal, after whom the city finds its name, founded
Jaisalmer in 1156 AD.
Jaisalmer is a paragon of beautiful culture and harsh climatic conditions, these together leave a lasting
impression on the visitors. The old city was completely encircled by a wall but much of it has crumbled sadly
for want of building material in recent years. The massive golden fort, which is the essence of Jaisalmer, is
entered through First Gate, is a burrow of narrow streets with Jain Temples and old palaces. The main market,
the Sadar Bazar is right below the hill. The bank, offices and several shops are also located near the Amar
Sagar Gate to the west.
Religious Tourism
India has long been known as a very spiritual, religion heavy area of the world. Here, religion is a way of life.
Understanding this aspect of secular India, the hospitality industry is trying to tap into religious tourism,
which could reap rich dividends. Major hotel chains and newer entrants into the hospitality industry see good
potential business coming from the increasing demand for quality accommodation at affordable prices.
Religious tourism has emerged as a booming market in India, a study by National Council for Applied Economic
Research shows that of the 230 million tourist trips undertaken in India, the largest proportion is made up
52
Chapter 4
of religious pilgrimages. Undertaken by both rural and urban Indians, they outnumber leisure holidays in
hill stations, getaways to sea beaches and even trips to metropolitan cities.(National Council for Applied
Economic Research (NCAER), 2003)
India is richly endowed with ancient temples and religious festivals. Religions originating in India, be it
Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism or, have a vibrant culture and spiritual philosophy. Together, they present a
viable, alternative way of life as compared to the materialism and confrontation prevalent in the West.
Within its distinct segment, religious tourism in India offers a variety to attract different kinds of tourists.
To begin with, there are pilgrimages to several world-renowned temples and shrines, such as Tirupati,
Vaishno Devi and Sabarimala. For those seeking more enduring pilgrimages, there are the Char Dhams
(four holy sites) at the four corners of the country and the twelve Jyotirlingas scattered across the land.
TABLE 13. Indians Keep the Faith: Religious Tourism Boom in India
Religious Hotspot Purpose of Visit Visitors
(million)
Tirupati, South India Temple, Deity 23
Puri, East Coast Temple, Deity 18.17
Vaishno Devi, North India Temple, Deity 17.25
Haridwar, North India Holy Bathing, River Ganges 11.04
Naina Devi, North India Temple, Deity 8.28
Mathura, North India Pilgrimage, Place of birth of Lord Krishna 8.28
Ajmer Sharif, West India Tomb of Saint 8.22
Amritsar, North India Golden Temple - Holiest Sikh Shrine 7.13
Shirdi, Western India Pay respects to Saint Sai Baba 6.21
Badrinath & Kedarnath, Himalayas Pilgrimage to seek atonement 4.1
Source: National Council of Applied Economic Research
53
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Domestic Tourism
Chapter 4 in India
Adventure Tourism
Adventure tourism has increased in India in recent years due to the efforts taken by the Indian government
and the MoT. The scope for adventure tourism in India is endless because the country has a rich diversity in
terms of climate and topography.
Various kinds of adventure on water, land, and air can be enjoyed in India.
• Rock climbing
• Skiing
• Camel safari
• Para gliding
• Mountaineering
• White water rafting
• Trekking
Rock-climbing
As a kind of adventure tourism in India, rock climbing is relatively new. Due to the presence of climbing rocks
in large numbers throughout the country, rock climbing as a kind of adventure tourism in India is taking off in
a big way. The various places in India where tourists can go for rock climbing are Badami, Kanheri Caves,
Manori Rocks, and Kabbal.
Skiing
Skiing in India as a kind of adventure tourism has become popular in the last decade. The country has a large
number of hill stations which have excellent skiing facilities. This has given rise to skiing adventure tourism in
India. The places in India where tourists can go for skiing are Gulmarg, Manali, Auli etc.
Mountaineering / Trekking
Mountaineering in India is also quite popular in the arena of adventure tourism. Tourists can go to Garhwal,
Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir for indulging in mountaineering.
Camel Safari
Camel safari in India has also become very popular due to the initiatives taken by the tourist boards of
some Indian states. The most famous destinations in India for camel safaris are Bikaner, Jodhpur, and
Jaisalmer. Paragliding in India has developed recently and paragliding facilities are available in a lot of
places in India.
54
Chapter 4
Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Exhibitions (MICE) market is a fast growing one and has exhibited a huge
potential worldwide. It is a recognized fact that international and regional conferences contribute greatly
towards building up of mutual goodwill and understanding, encourage interaction between nations, bring
tremendous amount of knowledge and frontier technologies particularly for the developing countries.
There is a growing interest amongst tourists to experience the rich culture and heritage of India. With increasing
opportunities for holidays and leisure, India is now becoming one of the leading venues for MICE in the
region. The MICE infrastructure in the country has been developing rapidly and convention hotels and
conference venues of international standards are being set up in cities across the country. With the
corresponding expansion in the network of airline operations, India is ready to position and market itself as
an important MICE destination.
Despite its recent troubles, India is growing and so are its meeting and convention facilities and leading Meetings
and Conventions cities include:
• Agra
• Bangalore
• Chennai
• Goa
• Hyderabad
• Jaipur
• Kochi
• Kolkata
• New Delhi
India is marketing itself as a destination which can offer myriad of experiences. It is a unique Conference
Destination as it offers cultural and heritage sites, the exotic and mystical, excellent facilities of beach and
adventure holidays which can be combined as pre and post conference tours to sum it up India has literally
everything that a visitor wants to experience and can offer people a complete holiday.
India’s image as a conference destination is also projected through the chains of Hotels, providing international
standards in facilities and services. Exclusive business hotels and exotic resorts, with meeting rooms of
distinction, spacious convention facilities, modern business centre’s and a wide range of conference facilities.
India is in a continual process of upgrading its MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions facilities.
There are multiple plans on the anvil for more world-class convention centers, airports that contest with the
best in the world and efforts to team the famous Indian hospitality with pitomizedn as per a visitor’s
requirement. You could also offer the credit to the world class incentive programs, her ability to heal spiritually,
her unmatched offering as a health destination or continually improved infrastructure facilities that over 3
million foreign tourists thronged her this year generating over US $30 billion as revenue, even as most other
preferred hotspots marked a decline in their tourism graphs.
The inbound MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and events) segment is growing at 15 to 20%
annually. It is estimated that the total national and international MICE meetings market all over the world
is in excess of $270 billion.
55
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Domestic Tourism
Chapter 4 in India
India provides an impressive combination of accommodation and other conference support facilities to
hold a successful Conference. To mention a few; Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, Renaissance Hotel and
Convention Center in Mumbai, the BM Birla Science and Technology Centre in Jaipur, the Jaypee Hotels &
International Convention Centre, Agra and the Cochin Convention Centre, Kochi etc together with facilities
in the business hotels and resorts at various centers in the country.
India is going the global way and MICE is fast becoming a major part of its travel and promotional budgets. In
the Indian context, incentives are at present the largest component of MICE but it is a maturing market. With
the expansion in the network of airlines operation on the domestic routes, better tourist surface transport
systems including the Indian Railways, new centers of information technology, many new convention centres,
hotels and meeting facilities, India is now an important MICE destination. The Indian sub-continent is emerging
as one of the finest Incentive destinations in the world owing to the diverse culture and geography. The
incentive programmes are a combination of old world charm and tradition interlaced with modern
cosmopolitan sophistication.
Today, there are distinct travel divisions within tour companies and airlines that exclusively target MICE
movement. Destinations have also begun to market MICE products to pitomized agencies and the corporate
world at large. The business of MICE holds enormous potential for any country. It is estimated that a person
travelling to a country for a conference or convention spends anywhere four to eight times more than a
normal leisure pitomiz. They spend more on food, more on business centre services.
India is globally connected to a network of over 50 international airlines and several domestic airlines, which
provide convenient connectivity within India.
Added to this is an elaborate network of surface transportation system. There is an excellent Railway system
running through the entire country. All-important cities are connected with state-of-the-art ‘Shatabdi &
Rajdhani’ Express trains. Special trains like Palace on Wheels and Royal Orient Express, comprising of air-
conditioned saloons decorated in the old Maharaja style .An excellent network of roads, national and state
highways, luxury coaches, Indian & foreign-make vehicles add to the convenience and comfort of surface
travel and, to add to this, India offers an educated manpower base where fluency in English and other official
international languages can be expected.
A large number of Convention Centres are available in India with a seating capacity of up to 2000 persons.
The important conference centres in the country are at New Delhi, Mumbai, Agra, Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin,
Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur & Kolkata. Some important hotel chains like the Taj Group, ITC-Welcomgroup, the
Oberoi’s, Meridien Hotels, Marriott Hotels etc. also have excellent conference facilities. The exhibition industry
has also gained fresh impetus with exhibition centre’s like Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, the Nehru Centre in
Mumbai and the Chennai Trade Centre in Chennai amongst several other options.
56
Chapter 4
Current Trends
After several years of healthy growth, 2009 is expected to be much tougher for the Indian Domestic
tourism, hospitality and leisure (THL) industry. The combination of a global recession, credit crunch and
rising unemployment has placed the nation’s economy at or near recession – leaving lesser money available
for consumers’ leisure travel and other forms of entertainment.
Corporations, meanwhile, are implementing cost-cutting measures such as reducing employee air travel and
scaling back or eliminating group meetings at convention hotels and destination resorts.
According to Federation of Indian Hotels and Restaurants Association of India rates across India have fallen by
25 percent on an average, as the occupancy levels have fallen to 50 percent.
Delhi and Mumbai have witnessed the sharpest decline in five-star hotel room rates and business class airfares
in the first quarter of 2009, among the top cities in Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, as per a study by business
travel management firm Egencia.
India’s domestic traffic continued to fall during the first three months of 2009 with passenger numbers on
domestic flights down 15% in January, 9% in February and 15% in March. According to figures published by
the Indian civil aviation ministry India’s airlines carried some 9.7 million domestic passengers in the first three
months of 2009. Kingfisher leads the way with 2.68 million giving it a market share of 27.6%. Combining Jet
Airways (1.74 million) and JetLite (0.72 million) gives Jet a market share of 25.4%. IndiGo with 13.7% is still
ahead of Spicejet (12.2%) among the pure LCCs. Among India’s international airlines Jet Airways and JetLite
both achieved at least 75% average loads. Kingfisher’s new international services are so far filling around
two-thirds of all their seats. (Airline Network News & Analysis, 2009)
57
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Chapter 5
The best part about travelling in Southeast Asia is that it offers something for everyone. Sunshine and warm
water, dense jungle, frigid mountaintops, crowded cities, steamy markets and a wealth of outdoor pursuits,
from scuba diving to bungee jumping to off-road dirt biking. Existing under a diverse cultural, historical and
linguistic framework that remains as varied and complex as ever, along with plenty of tourist-friendly
infrastructure. Thailand is without a doubt the transport hub of the region, as well as the most popular
country in terms of tourist numbers. Extensive and cheap road, rail and air travel networks ensure easy
access to Malaysia and Singapore, which follow closely in terms of popularity with huge, bustling cities to
enjoy, shop, eat and play.
In the past few years these countries have aggressively adopted marketing efforts to target Indian travellers,
considering the fact that the Indian have become more open about spending on holidays outside the country
and exploring new places and specially the efforts of these countries in providing the Indian best of deals to
bring them there. Also these countries have opened there representative offices in India as the major part of
their national income comes from Tourism. It’s not just about travelling to these countries, it’s also about
working and studying in places like Singapore and Malaysia as a lot of Indian universities have their campuses
located in this area and also Southeast Asia is also location of headquarters for a lot of multinationals.
They have adopted strategies like Truly Malaysia, Uniquely Singapore and Amazing Thailand with television
commercials of the same in all the leading channels and print ads in all the leading travel magazines.
Among the five sub-regions of Asia Pacific, Southeast Asia posted the largest growth in arrivals for 2008,
at 3.3%. According to PATA Annual Tourism Monitor 2008, the number of international tourist arrivals to
Southeast Asia registered 64.32 millions. In 2008 Singapore posted 10.12 millions arrivals which declined
by 1.6% as compared to 2007. During the same period Thailand showed a marginal increase in international
visitor arrivals by 0.8% to 14.58 millions. Malaysia saw a 5.1% increase in international arrivals by 22.05
millions in 2008.
As far as any international tourists (including Indian) are concerned they view theses destinations as value for
money, less travelling time, affordable air tickets, great sight seeing, shopping at its best, perfect adventure
sports, a partying delight, a gastronomic den, a corporate hub, also the best in education facilities and a home
away from home.
59
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Current Trends and Information on Key Outbound Destinations which are
Chapter 5 Competitive to Nepal Including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia
SINGAPORE
Republic of Singapore is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying
137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator.
Capital City
City of Singapore
Places of Interest
There is a lot to do in Singapore such as one can visit Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari, Singapore Zoological
Gardens, The Singapore Crocodilarium, Butterfly Park and Insect Kingdom when travelling with children.
However there are other places of interest such as the Philatelic Museum, Singapore Mint Coin Gallery and if
one is more of an explorer must visits are the China Town, Little India, Holland Village, Mount Faber and many
more.
Current Trends
Indian visitor arrival has doubled to Singapore in the last 5 years. Around 7, 49,000 tourist arrivals were
recorded to Singapore, however it increased to 7, 78,000 in the year 2008. It is one of the most preferred
60
Chapter 5
destinations by the Indian tourist because of its easy accessibility and cheap air tariff, efforts of Singapore
Tourism Board (STB) in India to attract Indian travellers and promote Singapore as a family destination.
About 60% of the Indian’s travel to Singapore in the months of May and June, corresponding to summer
holidays. Other months are October and November. It has also been noted that on an average there are
1,03,000 Indian arrivals in the month of May.
The average length of stay in 2003 was 9.1 days and in 2009 it is expected to hit double digits.
Singapore Airlines offers flights from all the major metros from India including Hyderabad. Even Jet has started
its flights to Singapore.
VISAS
To strengthen ties with India, Singapore tourism board has introduced e- visas.
MARKETING INITIATIVES
The STB with its office in India works in close proximity to satisfy the needs and wants of the Indian tourist
and Indian palette. The Singapore Tourism Board frequently works with its travel trade partners to provide
the Indian’s with special value-added travel packages to make their visit to Singapore even more memorable.
According to the reports India features in the top seven markets for Singapore and will come up to top five in
the next two to three years. It is also targeting the tier-II cities in India as there is a registered growth of 4.5%
in the year 2008.
61
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Current Trends and Information on Key Outbound Destinations which are
Chapter 5 Competitive to Nepal Including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia
ELECTRONIC MEDIA
The STB has launched many television commercials in the past, its advertisement campaign ‘UNIQUELY
SINGAPORE’ is breaking fresh grounds. Moreover it has also launched its mega campaign directed specially at
‘CHILDREN’ in channels like POGO which tries to sell the city as a fun place. There strategy is also to penetrate
regionally by TVC’s and destination advertising in serials like SONAR HORIN (BENGALI).
PRINT MEDIA
The STB tries to market aggressively with their double spread advertisement in all the leading magazines and
newspapers, specially travel supplements and weekend newspapers conveying facts like Singapore is a
‘shopper’s paradise’ etc.
TRAVEL PACKAGES
The STB has made a deliberate effort not to play a violent price game like its competitors (Thailand and
Malaysia) where its travel packages are concerned. They believe that the destination provides a flavour of
both the east and west, hence avoid the price war. The board is also targeting the stopover markets, many
flights have their halts in Singapore, and hence to capture that halting traffic they are introducing stopover
packages.
Kuoni in Association with STB Announces Launch of Luxury Packages for Great Singapore Sale
Kuoni in association with STB, has announced exclusive high-end luxury packages for the Great Singapore Sale
scheduled to take place from May 29, 2009 to July 26, 2009. With the Great Singapore Sale Tourist Privilege Card
the customer can enjoy special privileges ranging from dining, sightseeing, beauty and wellness to nightlife and
entertainment. Singapore has some of the best Luxury Hotels in the world such as Marina Mandarin, St Regis,
The Raffles, Sentosa Spa & Resort, Swissotel Stamford, Four Seasons, Fullerton and Capella. Kuoni has exclusively
tied up with these luxury hotels to promote the Great Singapore Sale.
As part of Kuoni’s high-end packages for Singapore, travelers can also avail additional benefits that are
complimentary for Kuoni clients. These include Chinese set lunch, discounts on Spa treatments, wireless/
broadband internet connection in the room, daily full buffet breakfast, lunch and evening cocktails, late check
out, Anti Stress Back massage, use of the Spa facilities, chocolate fondue set, chocolate buffet, etc. Customers
can enjoy the Great Singapore Sale Tourist Privileges and get 50 per cent off on iPod Touch and up to 55 per
cent off on branded items. Kuoni offers an exclusive discount of 10 per cent for MasterCard members on the
Great Singapore Sale package.
India and Singapore has signed a joint action plan on tourism cooperation. The agreement was signed by Sujit
Banerjee, secretary (Tourism), government of India and Lawrence Leong Yue Kheong, assistant chief executive
of International Group, STB, Singapore. Kumari Selja, minister of tourism and minister of housing and urban
poverty alleviation, government of India and S. Iswaran, senior minister of state for trade and industry and
education, government of Singapore witnessed the signing by tourism officials of India and Singapore. The Joint
Action Plan reiterates the provisions of cooperation enshrined in the bilateral agreement on tourism signed
between India and Singapore on Jan. 24, 1994. The objectives of the joint action plan are to strengthen joint
marketing collaboration in third countries, such as member countries of ASEAN and China, for mutual benefit.
62
Chapter 5
To promote reciprocal visits of media representatives, travel agents and tourism operators, with the aim
to create awareness about tourist attractions in each others‘ countries. It also includes the following:
Where appropriate, participate in tourism fairs in India and Singapore respectively. Where feasible, consider
organizing a Singapore and India week at the sidelines of tourism fairs and to promote and encourage
human resource development in tourism and travel related industries by collaborating through exchange
programs for faculties, students and by exchanging information on teaching modules and curriculum.
To compete with the ever changing market, STB for its travellers organise festivals, promotions, exchange
programs, conference all around the year. In the year 2008 the board marketed events were :
The inaugural Singapore Air show, Asia’s largest aerospace and defence event, is a joint venture between the
Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the Defence Science & Technology Agency. With a premier line-up of
industry conferences and highlights such as an aerial display by the Australian and Singapore Air Forces,
exhibition of rarely displayed aircrafts, and simulator rides, the Singapore Air show attracted over 120,000
public and trade visitors over its six-day run.
Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr. S. Iswaran, key officials from race promoter Singapore GP
Pte Ltd and the STB witnessed the first demonstration of the lighting system to be used by the world’s first
Formula One night race, the 2008 FORMULA 1.
Collaborating with Hollywood movies and hosting their world premiers in Singapore in co-ordination of tie-
up with other countries, winners won a 3 nights and 4 Days trip to Singapore that included air tickets,
accommodation, and vouchers for them to enjoy various attractions that show the different sides of Singapore.
The Singapore Food Festival serves gastronomic treats in this month-long event, giving food lovers from all
over the world an opportunity to sample the wide variety of Singapore’s local food favourites, and partake in
the unique culinary events, intriguing food trails and attractive dining promotions island-wide, with a different
theme.
Currently in its 14th year, the Great Singapore Sale (GSS) returned with attractive offers, tempting rewards and
exciting events. Featuring an eight-week shopathon, shoppers and visitors enjoyed discounts of up to 70%
along the central shopping belt of Orchard Road and Marina Bay, as well as shopping precincts in the heartlands.
This year’s GSS showcased the spirit of Singapore, with a range of uniquely Singapore brands, lifestyle products
and collectibles that locals and visitors can take home .
63
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Current Trends and Information on Key Outbound Destinations which are
Chapter 5 Competitive to Nepal Including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia
MEDICAL TOURISM
The STB ’s aim is not only to focus tourist holidays but it has also made sure that it promotes its self in other
areas which makes Singapore truly unique. Though it is dynamically, a multi-cultural city, rich in contrast and
colour with strategic location, excellent infrastructure and great attractions, the STB has made sure that
Singapore becomes a leading destination, not only for business and leisure, but also for world-class, affordable
and safe healthcare and becomes Asia’s leading medical hub. This also resulted in launch of Patients Beyond
Borders. Patients Beyond Borders is the first comprehensive guide for Americans considering medical tourism.
Less about travel and all about healthcare choices, this consumer guidebook provides practical answers for
the increasing numbers of Americans facing long-term financial insecurity due to challenging medical
conditions.
Singapore Edition is voted the “Best Medical/Wellness Tourism Destination” by Travel Weekly (Asia) Industry
Awards 2007 in June for the second year running, and the second most desired destination for medical care
and treatment after the United States by a Reader’s Digest Asian Health Survey across seven Asian cities in
2007, Singapore was the venue for the launch of Patients Beyond Borders Singapore Edition on 23rd July.
Written by Josef Woodman and published by Healthy Travel Media, Patients Beyond Borders: Everybody’s
Guide to Affordable, World-Class Medical Tourism, is a trade paperback offering health travelers all the
resources required to make safe, cost-effective decisions about travelling abroad for their healthcare, in
Singapore. It is the STB’s responsibility to spearheads the branding and marketing of Singapore’s healthcare
services overseas, nurtures the medical travel market and promotes the development of overseas referral
channels to strengthen the seamless delivery of quality healthcare to international patients. By 2012, Singapore
hopes to attract 1 million medical travelers annually.
SINGAPORE EDUCATION
In year 2003, government of Singapore established and promoted Singapore as a premier education hub and
help international students make an informed decision on studying in Singapore. This initiative is also led and
supported by the Singapore Tourism Board. They have tied-up with the Indian university to build campuses
such as S.P Jain Management School, which will help generate student traffic. In 2007 the STB organized
Education Awards to recognise the best in the industry and also awarded scholars for their excellent work. In
India they aim to strengthen the consultant network and recently 2.1 million Singapore education supplement
booklets were distributed to all the leading newspapers.
The key role of the board is to engage in a myriad of promotional activities undertaken by the Education
Services Division which includes:-
64
Chapter 5
The Singapore Service Star is an accreditation scheme that seeks to epitomize and promote businesses that
deliver good service and exhibit sound business practices. Developed by the STB, this scheme is designed to
enhance tourists’ confidence when transacting in Singapore and deliver a truly unique experience to the
visitors. Hence the STB honors the establishments that are attentive to enhancing the visitors’ experience.
The Singapore Service Star is a scheme that will help businesses achieve service excellence which will ultimately
lead to greater consumer spending, benefiting both industry players and Singapore as a tourist destination.
OTHER STRATEGIES
• Indian Brand Ambassadors – The STB used Indian superstar Mr. Amitabh Bachchan to promote Singapore,
when the IIFA Awards were held in the early 2004.
• Indian Movie shoots – The STB figures that the movie industry can be big force multipliers, especially if
the movies are shot in the more attractive parts of the city. The board is offering help and clearances to
production houses who would like to shoot in Singapore.
• Identifying two key markets: Conferences and Meeting and Honeymooners
ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN
In 2009 they strategise to beat the economic slowdown and sustain tourism industry with their ‘UMBRELLA
CAMPAIGN’ which includes ‘2009 REASONS TO VISIT SINGAPORE and many more. Strategy plan for India is to
promote Singapore as an ultimate Romantic, Family and Educational destination.
65
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Current Trends and Information on Key Outbound Destinations which are
Chapter 5 Competitive to Nepal Including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia
MALAYASIA
Malaysia consists of 13 states and three federal territories in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of
329,847 square kilometers. It is divided into two parts, namely Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo.
Capital City
Kuala Lumpur
Places of Interest
Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, Batu Feringgi, Sepang F1 Circuit, KLCC Twin Towers, Mt Kinabalu, Taman Negara,
Gunung Mulu National Park, Sipanden and Genting Highlands.
Current Trends
Around 145,000 visitors from India travelled to Malaysia in the year 2003 and 550,738 Indian arrivals were
registered in the 2008. The Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB) aims at price sensitive Indian who has
the tendency to visit places like Kuala Lumpur, Genting, Langkawi and Penang. They are putting efforts to lure
66
Chapter 5
Indian tourist in other places like Kota Kinabalu etc, as India is the sixth largest market for Malaysia. Out of
the total Indian visiting the country 76% are mainly for holidays and honeymoons and are first time
travelers, 43% out which are in the age bracket of 25-34 years.
More than half of the Indian travel to Malaysia in the months of April May, June and July.
The average stay was registered approximately 5.7 days in 2005 as compared to 4.4 days in 2004. It is important
to note that Malaysia entertains 20-25 % Indian from South India and Gujarat.
Malaysia Airlines operates 32 flights from Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi to Kuala Lumpur,
while Jet Airways has one flight connecting Mumbai and Kuala Lumpur. The connectivity offered by the 70
direct flights per week from key cities of India available on the national carrier, as well as other foreign airlines
flying to the Far East region.
Jet Airways had earlier signed a code sharing agreement with Malaysia Airlines and network-wide reciprocal
frequent flyer partnership to provide customers with enhanced travel connectivity and privileges. Malaysia
Airlines and Indian Airlines have a similar agreement in the past.
VISAS
There are tourist visas and also social visit passes for the long staying tourist.
MARKETING INITIATIVES
The MTPB targets to attract not only the big cities but they believe and even the tier-II and tier-III cities have
major potential as they contain largely untapped first time travellers. The board has initiated road shows in
smaller cities and semi-metro and also plans string of promotions in cities like Ludhiana, Nashik, Indore,
Kochi, Pune and Guwahati amongst others, in its attempt to reach larger number of Indians. Their strategies
definitely differs from its counterparts, hence they are straddling two markets
• The first ones are budget travellers and value for money market
• The well-off, where the money is not an issue
67
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Current Trends and Information on Key Outbound Destinations which are
Chapter 5 Competitive to Nepal Including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia
Tourism Malaysia recently concluded its six-city MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions) road
show in an effort to generate higher MICE traffic from India’s Tier-II cities. The road show, which was targeted
at the high-yielding corporate travellers from the Indian market, was organised in Ahmedabad, Pune,
Chandigarh, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Madurai. The thrust of the road show was to provide holistic product
update through ‘Meet & Experience Malaysia’ programme, which showcased the infrastructure and state-of-
the-art amenities to host and hold international conferences at the convention centres both in Kuala Lumpur
and beyond.
Malaysia currently has 2,360 hotels supplying 1,60,327 rooms, offering specialist facilities catering for meetings
and conferences. The connectivity offered by the 70 direct flights per week from key cities of India available
on the national carrier, as well as other foreign airlines flying to the Far East region, makes it an ideal MICE
hub from India. Malaysia has hosted more than 100 MICE events from India representing varied industries,
over the years. In terms of MICE, the total conference arrivals recorded last year were 1,000,000. Malaysia is
now set to capture a greater share of the international MICE market to represent at least ten per cent of the
total arrivals to Malaysia. India continues to remain an important tourism source market for Malaysia with
3,35,241 Indian arrivals between January to July 2008, registering an overall increase of 28.8 per cent as
compared to the number of arrivals last year for the same period. Tourism Malaysia aims to target 500,000
arrivals from Indian market this year. Leading the race in incentive destinations, Malaysia doesn’t lag behind
on the conference and convention sector either. It hosts a number of conferences and conventions annually.
Important events include the Malaysia International Furniture Fair (MAFEX), Foodex Asia, International Rubber
Glove Exhibition And Conference (Malaysia is the largest producer of surgical gloves), Medical Scientific
Exhibition and Conference and many such events.Malaysia has the expertise, state-of-the-art centres and
services to cater to this segment. Malaysia has a sound backing of world-class hotels adjoining the convention
centres.
Apart from the infrastructure and facilities, Malaysia also offers professional expertise to facilitate conference
or convention needs in the country. This makes the procedure a whole lot easier and cost-effective as one can
commission local professional support as against flying down people from India. The country actually has
companies termed ‘Professional Conference Organisers’ or PCOs that specifically cater to MICE needs. These
are exhibition contractors who handle the logistics and smooth functioning of a small to large scale exhibition.
ELECTRONIC MEDIA
The MTPB’s advertising campaign Malaysia-‘Truly Asia’ has won the hearts of many Indians and highlights the
countries rich flora and fauna. It initiates to target the aspirations of every Indian to travel abroad. However
the focus remains more on travel packages.
PRINT MEDIA
The MTPB tries to market aggressively in all the leading magazines and newspapers specially travel supplements
and weekend newspapers conveying facts like Malaysia is full of adventure etc.
TRAVEL PACKAGES
The MTPB strategizes to attract Indians by cut-rate budget packages and aggressive marketing its main target
is to catch on as a hot destination for price-sensitive Indians. In the past Tourism Malaysia has unleashed
68
Chapter 5
attractive packages to visit Malaysia at a throwaway price. For example there are packages: for Rs. 18,000 to
21,000 a couple can fly down to the country and avail complimentary hotels for four days with breakfast also
thrown in. And for the more affluent ones the MTPB works on various innovative packages. Thus was born
‘Malaysia-My Second Home’ programme to aim at Indians who want to stay in Malaysia for a longer duration.
It is also trying its hands on niche packages: for instance, it had launched Golf and Formula 1 incentive travel
scheme for those who have the money to spend.
2. Flower Festival
The Flora & Fruit Festival in Malaysia is held in conjunction with the local fruit season.
69
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Current Trends and Information on Key Outbound Destinations which are
Chapter 5 Competitive to Nepal Including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia
ECOTOURISM
Ecotourism is a new theme being used by Malaysia to attract highend Indian tourists who are looking for
something exotic and different from standard 5 star hotel holidays. For the second time in a row, Malaysia
won the best ecotourism destination award at the 2008 Travel- Weekly (Asia) industry awards held in Singapore.
The hotspots include Langkawi, the only island in Southeast Asia recognised by UNESCO as a geo park because
of its outstanding geological landscapes.
OTHER STRATEGIES
• Tourism Malaysia realises that most Indians prefer to visit more than one country in Southeast Asia on a
holiday and on limited budgets. Hence: twin destination marketing. For instance it has teamed up with
Hong Kong Tourism Board where the packages are clubbed with both the place.
• Tapping the Indian corporate by offering special facilities for holding company conferences and meetings
in Malaysia.
• Organising Malaysian Food festivals in the tier-II cities like Ahmedabad, as a lot of Gujarati’s visit Malaysia
every year from India.
70
Chapter 5
THAILAND
The Kingdom of Thailand is the world’s 51st-largest country in terms of total area, roughly equal in size to
Spain, with a surface area of approximately 513,000 km2 (198,000 sq mi), and the 20th most-populous country,
with approximately 63 million people.
Capital City
Bangkok
Places of Interest
There are a lot of places to be explored in Chaing Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket, Pattaya, Ko Samui, Bangkok and
many more.
71
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Current Trends and Information on Key Outbound Destinations which are
Chapter 5 Competitive to Nepal Including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia
Current Trends
The numbers of arrivals of Indian have surely changed in the past decade. As per the statistics by the Tourism
Authority of Thailand (TAT) the number of Indian as per the country of residence have increased from 4,29,732
in 2006 to 5,06,237 in 2007 and Indians by nationality have also experienced a tremendous growth from
1,59,254 in 2007 to 1,73,321 in 2008 . India visitor arrival contributed a total of 5,12,845 in 2008, which has
witnessed 1-2% growth. The total numbers of Indian arrival at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in January
this year were 35,971 while in February the arrivals were 32,855.
The average length of stay for Indian in the year 2007 was 6.07 days which has noticed a hike since the same
year.
The airline with the most capacity is Thai International which flies twice daily from Delhi and Mumbai, daily
from Chennai and Kolkata, nine times per week from Bangalore, and four times a week from Hyderabad. This
adds up to a total of 23,000 seats a week. The routes from Thailand to India are called ‘Happy all the way to
the world’.
On 29 March ’09 Cathay Pacific started daily flights from Delhi to Bangkok, adding to capacity. Cathay launched
a promotion putting a limited number of seats into the market at a low fare of 9,000 rupees. The regular fare
is 15,000 to 16,000 rupees.
VISA
Liberal visa formalities. Indian visitors can obtain a visa on arrival at all international gateways in Thailand. In
2009, Thai government has waived – off the visa fee until 4 June’09 which has been marketed as an additional
incentive to visit Thailand.
72
Chapter 5
MARKETNG INITIATIVES
The TAT has always aimed at organising road shows all around the country to educate Indian travel and tour
operators about Thailand. With its state of the art infrastructure and transportation Thailand is also making
ends meet by initiating railway tourism. The TAT has identified target segments such as family groups, incentive
groups, wedding parties, and honeymooners. It is targeting women travellers with its great deals and discounts
at the time of shopping and highlights its adventure and sea sports. Thailand is also a vital relaxation destination
with a great deal of authentic Thai massages to offer. In 2009 its main focus is targeting tier II cities as they
have great potential.
ELECTRONIC MEDIA
India is now being promoted under the “Amazing Thailand” brand name along with its key sub-themes, Beaches,
Nature, Heritage, Health and Wellness, Chic and Trendy Products, and Festivals.
PRINT MEDIA
The TAT’s marketing strategies also cover advertising in a range of high-end publications.
TRAVEL PACKAGES
The main selling points of Thailand in the Indian market include: value for money and affordability, great
shopping, accessibility and proximity, variety, visa on arrival facility and year-round holiday destination. Increase
B2B and B2C promotion in Tier II cities and joint promotions with travel agents. Organising road shows and
workshops across India, leading Indian tour operators are being presented with various ideas to feature in a
package. New tourism destinations being presented include Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Krabi, Phuket, Ko Samui
and the Greater Mekong Sub-region.
Thailand festivals and events are around the year and in all parts of the country, in north and South and also
in central Thailand. It is for all kinds of travellers, whether you are on a leisure or business trip, there is not
even a single event which does not fullfill your needs.
73
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Current Trends and Information on Key Outbound Destinations which are
Chapter 5 Competitive to Nepal Including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia
OTHER STRATEGIES
• Efforts are also being made to go direct to consumers in joint promotions with supermarkets and retailers.
• ‘Celebrity marketing’ by bringing Indian movie stars to Thailand for feature productions and other publicity-
generating events
• Targeting retired professionals and Senior Citizens.
• Promising market is the Indian weddings which are exceptionally lavish and increasingly being staged
abroad by the super wealthy.
• Looking into twin-destination packages in alliance with Myanmar.
ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN
Corporate travel followed by high-end tourist traffic and family holidays has been hit due to recession. But
the authority is making sure that there are no cancellations as the packages are much affordable.
74
Chapter 6
Delhi
Delhi has a population of 14 million. It is the second largest metropolis in the country and it has utmost
political importance as India’s national capital is located in New Delhi. Delhi spreads over an area of 1,483
km². Compared to other Indian cities, Delhi has the relatively low density of 9,340 people per km². Delhi’s per
capita income of around US$6,180 is almost double the national average(Urban age, 2007). Also indicative of
the city’s wealth is its high rate of car ownership, although the local home ownership rate is slightly below the
Indian average. Delhi’s economy is concentrated in the services sector.
Delhi, the capital of India, is situated in northern India and stands on the west bank of Yamuna River bounded
by Uttar Pradesh and in the north, west and south by Haryana. The city has its historical importance for the
fact that it has been the home to Mughal Empire. Apart from its historical importance, Delhi also happens to
be the political hub of India, every political activity in the country traces its roots to Delhi.
Delhi is bounded by four states namely Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab that have
strong influence on the lifestyle of Delhi. Delhi is a cosmopolitan city where people are open to embracing
new ideas and life style. You can notice the transition in the demography of people in Delhi with the changing
lifestyle and the influence of modern ideas in the lives of Delhites. People from all parts of the country live in
Delhi which makes the city very cosmopolitan in nature and there is unity among the citizens from all caste
and creed. NCR is the metropolitan area of Delhi which encompasses satellite cities like Faridabad, Gurgaon,
Ghaziabad and Noida.
The origin of NCR is traced to the recommendation of first ever Master Plan of Delhi, way back in the year
1962. The prime aim was to reduce the burden of increasing population in Delhi and the growing demand for
more space owing to large scale industrialization. Therefore the neighboring states like Rajasthan, Haryana
and Uttar Pradesh came into consideration for developing satellite cities of Delhi. Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad
and Faridabad were the names that came up for developing the whole NCR region.
MNCs and corporate bodies from all over the world are turning their heads towards Delhi sighting the
manpower and skilled labor resource. NCR region is now the home to major international and domestic
companies, be it IT, ITES, BPOs or other manufacturing and service industries.
Owing to the proximity with New Delhi, there has been a tremendous growth in the infrastructure and economy
of these cities. States like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have benefited a lot from the recent developments in
sectors like Real Estate, IT, ITES, manufacturing and other service industries
Gurgaon: Gurgaon is located in the northern part of Haryana and the city’s population is around 1,000,000 as
per the 2001 census (SHARMA, G. 2009). Gurgaon is the main city of the National Capital Region of Delhi
because it is the home to major IT companies and provides the best infrastructure in terms of schools, roads,
housing societies and medical facilities. Gurgaon is famous for its outsourcing and off shoring services that
contribute the most towards the economy of Gurgaon. The major industries in Gurgaon are IT, ITES, auto
manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.
75
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Consumer Characteristics, Outbound, Major Tourism Players of Focus
Chapter 6 Areas- Delhi and Surroundings and Mumbai and Surroundings
Noida: Noida is one of the most modern cities of India with world class amenities and infrastructure.
Noida is home to many big international as well as national companies like AgreeYa Solutions, GlobalLogic,
EXL, Birlasoft, Impetus, STMicroelectronics, MtronPTI, Fiserv, Adobe Systems, TCS, CSC, HCL, ATC Labs,
Interra and Xansa. Some of the main reasons behind the existence of these companies in Noida are the
proximity of the city to Delhi and good infrastructure
Faridabad: Faridabad is one of the main industrial cities of Haryana and comes under the region of Delhi &
NCR. The city is bounded by Delhi in the north, Gurgaon in the west and the parts of Uttar Pradesh on the east
and south. It is surrounded by river Yamuna in the east and the Aravalli hills in south and west regions. Newly
developed Faridabad or New Faridabad is the most preferred destination for industries, IT companies, corporate
bodies and government departments
Ghaziabad: A Newsweek survey, which put the city on the global map, happened in 2006 and since then
Ghaziabad has been hip and happening. In two years, it has done a complete makeover by adding malls, hi-
tech cities and golf courses to its new face.
Delhi has the advantage of its cosmopolitan society where there are people from every nook and corner of
India. This makes the city very multi linguistic and multi cultured. Being the capital of the world’s largest
democracy, Delhi has embassies of more than 160 countries.
Mumbai
The capital of the State of Maharashtra, Mumbai is a city of 19 million. The Greater Mumbai, stretches over
438 km², and it has an extremely high population density (27,348 people per km²). The greater Mumbai,
Metropolitan Region is the world’s fifth most populous metropolitan region. Mumbai is the entertainment
and financial capital of India but the city also has the largest slums in the country. Mumbai contributes 40% of
national income tax and 60% of customs duty. In terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), Mumbai is estimated
to have an economy valued at US$126 billion (PPP), and a per capita income of US$6,924 (PPP) in 2005. In
India, Mumbai has higher than average productivity per capita, service-sector employment and car ownership
rates. On the other hand, the city has a lower than average home ownership rate and proportion of young
people. Key challenges facing Mumbai include traffic congestion, loss of wetlands, frequent flooding and
critical issues concerning housing and the city’s slums. Yet the urban region continues to grow. Some projections
state that Mumbai will overtake Tokyo as the world’s largest city within decades. (Urban Age, 2007)
Mumbai is India’s financial centre, the economic powerhouse of the nation, heart of the Hindi film industry
and the industrial hub of everything from textiles to petrochemicals. Enriched with culture and abounding
with places for entertainment and leisure, there is something for everyone to engage in the city of Mumbai.
Known as the liberal cosmopolitan cities of India, it welcomes people from all over the nation with open
arms. Mumbai is a city of extreme contrasts, of great prosperity and abject poverty, of 21st-century technology
and medieval squalor, epitomized by the destitute and crippled lying in rows beneath bright, electronic
advertisements for dotcom companies. It boasts the finest collection of Victorian buildings anywhere in Asia
and a myriad of temples and mosques. Yet 62% of its population lives in slums – the highest percentage for
any large Indian city. (Economic Times, 2004)
Mumbai is also congested with people, its streets are clogged with traffic, its air is foully polluted by the
barely controlled emissions of its factories and vehicles, and many of its buildings are slowly crumbling.
However, the city still has much to offer. Mumbai is a colourful (the saris, the bazaars, etc.), vibrant, energetic
and friendly city, with a varied and fascinating history and many reasons to face the future with confidence.
76
Chapter 6
NATURE OF INCOME
City Delhi Jaipur Lucknow Chandigarh Mumbai Ahmedabad
Salaried Class 53.8% 31.4% 45.5% 61.5% 57.8% 61.5%
Average Income in lacs Rs. 1.83 Rs. 1.23 Rs. 1.39 Rs 1.61 Rs. 2.05 Rs. 1.61
Business Class 32.3% 43.8% 26.5% 18.9% 31.7% 33.6%
Average Income in lacs Rs. 2.99 Rs. 1.39 0.93 Rs. 3.46 Rs. 2.04 Rs. 1.48
77
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Consumer Characteristics, Outbound, Major Tourism Players of Focus
Chapter 6 Areas- Delhi and Surroundings and Mumbai and Surroundings
Access to a large and relevant target group is possibly the most important parameter for any marketer in
selection of markets. Markets are selected based on their affluence level as well as size (current and expected
in the future) as a judicious mix of both would be critical for any market to be seen as high potential across
top eight Indian towns. Ernst and Young E&Y has created an Affluence Index which is calculated after analyzing
various Affluence levels parameter such as per capita income, savings, employment rate, vehicle ownership,
internet usage and credit growth. The weighted scoring system is often used to evaluate and quantify a wide
range of product concept criteria. Individual ‘evaluation criteria’ are scored and weighted to determine an
overall concept score. Typically, the criteria are assigned values from 0 – 10, reflecting low to high scores;
each criteria is also assigned a weighting factor that reflects its relative importance. Since some variables are
more important than others, they should be assigned a greater weighting in the overall score. The E&Y created
a weighted score Index by giving weightage to Affluence Index, Relevant Population Potential and Future
Growth to arrive at a consolidated weighted score and the same is summarised in table 16.
Source – City Skyline of India 2006 by Indicus Analytics Ernst & Young Analysis
78
Chapter 6
79
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Consumer Characteristics, Outbound, Major Tourism Players of Focus
Chapter 6 Areas- Delhi and Surroundings and Mumbai and Surroundings
80
Chapter 6
81
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Consumer Characteristics, Outbound, Major Tourism Players of Focus
Chapter 6 Areas- Delhi and Surroundings and Mumbai and Surroundings
82
Chapter 6
Gateway City Per Person Budget Per Person Budget Per Person Budget Per Person Budget
< Rs. 20,000.00 < Rs. 30,000.00 < Rs. 50,000.00 > Rs. 50,000.00
Chandigarh Nepal Singapore Turkey UK
Amritsar Thailand China Australia
Ludhiana Malaysia New Zealand
Jallandhar Singapore Europe
Jaipur Hong Kong USA
Lucknow Nepal Thailand
Agra Dubai
Gateway City Per Person Budget Per Person Budget Per Person Budget Per Person Budget
< Rs. 20,000.00 < Rs. 30,000.00 < Rs. 50,000.00 > Rs. 50,000.00
Mumbai Dubai Singapore Turkey UK
Thailand China Australia
Malaysia New Zealand
Singapore Europe
Hong Kong USA
Nepal
83
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Consumer Characteristics, Outbound, Major Tourism Players of Focus
Chapter 6 Areas- Delhi and Surroundings and Mumbai and Surroundings
Importance of Surrounding Areas near Delhi and Mumbai for Promotion of Tourism to Nepal
Delhi and Mumbai work as magnets to High Income and Medium Income families. There are excellent job
opportunities in these cities and qualified professional with an aspirational life style like to settle in these
cities.
Due to extreme pressure on infrastructure, there is a massive growth in the satellite areas of Delhi and Mumbai.
These include towns such as Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad in Delhi and Navi Mumbai towns near Mumbai. Most
people would work in these cities and stay at close by areas. The growth of satellite towns and the good
development of infrastructure such as malls and golf courses is an indication of their rising status.
The young and spending middle class is buying houses and other amenities in these towns. They love to
spend their money on luxuries and like to take holidays as and when possible. They are the right target
audience for planning a tourist attraction campaign.
84
Chapter 7
Before arriving at the suggested market segmentation for Nepal, the current situation needs to be reviewed.
Nepal traditionally has had very stable numbers from India. Typically customer segmentation for Nepal tourism
was focused on outbound International traveler from India who is leisure or a MICE traveler. A tourism
promotion strategy was devised to attract these consumers and despite all the promotions done, the numbers
went down in the last decade.
While focusing on the same customer segmentation, Nepal tried to create other possible tourism product
mix such as Secondary destinations, Wildlife, Heritage, Adventure Sports etc and did tourism promotion
activities.
In the past, all Market segmentation of Indian Tourists have been done keeping the Indian International
traveler in mind and which can be segmented in two broad categories:
• Leisure Traveller
• Business Traveller
85
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Suggestions on Market Segmentation with
Chapter 7 Special Reference to Nepal
Leisure Traveler
After reviewing the major travel websites, travel magazines, newspapers etc. Nepal as a destination doesn’t
seem to leave a mark and lure Indian travelers interested in international leisure travel destinations.
Most Indian travelers seeking a holiday abroad can be divided in three major categories:
These categories of travelers are choosing Far East as their first point of travel from North India. From West
India, they are choosing between Far East and Middle East destinations. They are spending over Rs. 25000.00
per person on their travel and a family of four ends up spending over Rs. 100,000.00 on their trip.
This category is choosing UK and Europe as their travel destinations. They are spending over Rs. 50,000.00
per person on their travel and a family of four ends up spending over Rs. 200,000.00 on their trip.
This category is now choosing exotic locales such as Egypt, Turkey, China, South Europe, Spain and USA as
their travel destinations. They are spending over Rs. 100,000.00 per person on their travel and a family of
four ends up spending over Rs.400,000.00 on their trip.
Nepal with a per person cost of around Rs.15,000.00 is unlikely to be considered by Leisure Travelers and
Nepal hardly figures in their option list.
Business Traveler
For Nepal, there is minimal business travel from India and the only segmentation interesting for Nepal is the
Conference and Incentive sector. International Conference and Incentive sector can be divided into three
major segments depending upon price segmentation.
Budget to Economy – For Corporations spending less than Rs. 25,000.00 – 45,000.00 per person, Thailand is
emerging as the preferred option, followed by Singapore and Malaysia and UAE (Dubai)
Luxury – For Corporations spending less than Rs.1,00,000. 00 per person, London and other European
destinations are emerging as the preferred option.
Grand – For Corporations spending over Rs. 150,000.00 per person and USA and High end European
destinations are emerging as the preferred option.
86
Chapter 7
Indian domestic market for Nepal could be segmented in the following categories:
Family Holidays
People in the age group 30-39 year old may have children under 10 and are likely to travel with partner or
as a family. Likely to pursue physical activities, visit nature reserves and place importance for their children
learning from travel. Normally plan a 4-7 days holidays break. This group is more likely to visit Nepal than
other groups and normally will plan their holidays well in advance.
87
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Suggestions on Market Segmentation with
Chapter 7 Special Reference to Nepal
People in the age group 18-25 year old, fresh out of college are likely to travel with partner or a group of
friends. Likely to pursue physical activities. Normally plan weekend breaks and can also consider longer 10-12
day break. They plan their holidays at a short notice.
People in the age group 25-40 year old, both members have earning and no kids. Normally plan short term
breaks and prefer interactive travel experiences to passive holidays. They tend to crave physical or psychological
challenges and generally have a higher than average money to spend per trip. They plan their holidays at a
short notice.
88
Chapter 7
People in the age group 40-55 year old, have children at home and are likely to travel with partner or as a
family. Travel focuses on getting close with nature and immersing in local culture while having a chance to
rest and recharge.
Religious*
People in the age group 45-65 year old with no children at home are likely to travel with partner or group of
friends. Personal growth is important when choosing destination and would like to visit and complete various
religious destinations normally plan their holidays well in advance.
Religious Characteristics
Type of Group Group
Estimated period of stay 5-10 days
Group composition Professional Tour operator
Things most likely to do Religious circuit
Culture
Historical
Things least likely to do Shopping/Casino
Planning Horizon 2 months
Decision Making Group
Places to visit All religious sites
Hotel Type 2-3 stars
Budget Spend Rs. 10000.00 – 20000.00
*This age group is also highly likely to visit Kailash Mansarover depending on their spending capacity as the
trip can cost upto Rs. 100,000.00 or above per person.
89
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Suggestions on Market Segmentation with
Chapter 7 Special Reference to Nepal
People in the age group of 55 to 60 + years, with children settled are likely to travel with partner or tour
group. Travel is about relaxation and learning something new and something they will talk about afterwards.
Want to be inspired and challenged by a destination. This group can spend maximum time at a holiday and
want quality accommodation.
*This age group is also highly likely to visit Kailash Mansarover depending on their spending capacity as the
trip can cost upto Rs. 100,000.00 or above per person.
90
Chapter 8
TOURISTS
Infrastructure
Waste Food Energy Marketing/
Catering Laundry (including
management production supplies sales
real estate)
91
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Suggestions on Marketing Strategy, Policies and Programs
Chapter 8 for Nepal Tourism Board to Attract Indian Tourists
There is a major linkage between the Tourism Volume expansion and the Tourism Supply Chain Industry.
If the Tourism Volume increases without a corresponding support by Supply Chain then the Tourists feel
that they are not getting the appropriate value for the money which they are spending. Supply chain
should be developed first before Tourism promotion exercise is planned. The figure 8 summaries the
above mentioned linkages:
• High absorptive capacity for indirect and • Well-developed supply chain and
induced benefits tourism sector
• Well-developed supply chains • Focus here needs to be enhancing value
• Available domestic skills and labor force generated through segmentation and
• Effective tourism strategies focusing on focus on high value added markets
enhancing value and volume of visitors • Sustain competitiveness and respond to
would contribute greatly to wider e emerging markets
economic development
Supply chains
Low High
Value and volume of tourism
92
Chapter 8
Deloitte has made a thorough analysis on how perceptions impact the destination. Some of the key
factors which impact tourists have been highlighted in the figure 9. Security safety perception has the
highest impact on Tourism movement. This is closely followed by what alternatives tourist has and what
level of infrastructure is available. (Deloitte, 2008)
Security/safety
High
Adaptability
Alternatives (availability) Welcome
Alternatives Infrastructure Place-making
Taxation (relative cost) Choice of goods and services
Globalization Skills Quality
Incomes
Potential impact
Weather/seasonality
Landscape and environment
Tastes/attitudes
Population
Low
Low High
Potential to influence
Destination attractiveness is the relative attractiveness of a tourist destination over time and Destination attractiveness
attempts to quantify the impact of any improvements made in policy, tourism infrastructure,
and so on. Investment
Investment refers to tourism infrastructure (hotels, airplanes, recreation sites, etc.) as well as public Relative cost
investment in areas supporting tourism (e.g., transport infrastructure) and the development of
the tourism supply chain. Spending power
Relative cost is a key factor influencing decisions of both domestic and international travelers. The
recent significant appreciation of the dollar is a clear example of this at play. Demographic factors
Spending power is a significant driver of tourism amongst both domestic and source market
residents.
Demographic factors comprise overall population growth, the dynamics of specific socioeconomic
segments, and trends and such as the aging of the population in many developed economies.
93
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Suggestions on Marketing Strategy, Policies and Programs
Chapter 8 for Nepal Tourism Board to Attract Indian Tourists
The purpose of this study was to gather information, gain perspectives and share visions on what Nepal
should do to attract more tourists from India.
Discussions with stakeholders in India indicated major perception issues. Marketing tactics need to overcome
the prevailing view that Nepal is an unsafe and unpredictable destination with little to do besides local site
seeing and casino. Communications strategies need to address widespread uncertainty about local situation
and the availability of confirmed services with variety of accommodations and amenities.
Nepal needs to be positioned from the Indian consumers’ point of view. Travel agents and customers talked
about mixed messages leading to marketplace confusion and the need to be consistent, to ensure that Nepal
is a safe 365 days destination.
Travel Agents talked about how best to organize the industry, to best position Nepal. Currently a lot of Indian
Travel Agents are doing a lot of marketing on a lot of fronts to promote Nepal as a destination. But all of these
endeavours are being done at their costs and there is more support required from government of Nepal and
Nepal Tourism Board. For example, they feel they should get regular supply of brochures and at the same
time feel that too many brochures are out there and Nepal should come with a special brochure with key
highlights on what the tourist should do.
Travel Agents also feel that Nepal has not defined itself as a destination, product offering lacks novelty,
infrastructure is poor, and it is not optimising its potentialities. There was considerable agreement that the
industry is fragmented, that it is not organized to be a highly desirable destination. While some regions in
Nepal are more organized than others, it was realized that too many players and too many layers. There is
competition from Nepal Hotels, Nepal Travel Agents and Tour Operators keen to make direct bookings
from the Indian Market. On the one hand there was a call for a strong marketing strategy led by NTB with
affordable buy-in opportunities – fewer advertisements in more effective brochures. On the other hand,
the need for an overriding call to action was stressed —”Nepal Travel Now”— to counter the lack of safety
perception in Nepal.
At the end of the day, however, an underlying message was evident that an under-resourced structure and
undervalued industry is much less of a problem than product development and infrastructure support. Travel
Agents talked about key target markets which remain Kathmandu and Pokhara, as well as emerging and niche
markets worth investigating and what needs to be done to these markets. There were also comments about
focussing on high-yield, low-impact markets rather than on high-volume, high-yield markets, which are less
ecologically demanding.
The importance of identifying Nepal’s niche and enhancing market readiness was stressed by Travel Agents.
Packaging should not be synonymous with discounting. Approaches such as bundling products, making a
menu of offerings available and à la cart shopping were seen as key to attracting emerging and niche markets,
as well as expanding target markets. Packages with a family focus were viewed as a core market, as well as
those that accentuate the diversity of a Nepal holiday. This should help to strengthen both the core and
attract new markets.
Flexibility and customization will be required as operators figure out how to attract new visitors. This may
mean appealing to visitors who do not think they are the outdoors type, or who reflect a broader diversity of
cultures and lifestyles or who are part of an aging demographic. The “accessible excitement,” was the way
one travel agent characterised it.
94
Chapter 8
Indian visitors are looking for sustainable experiences. Instead of just passing through an area they will spend
two or three days and they want to leave with something to share the experience. Travel Agents stressed the
importance of taking advantage of demographic shifts. For example, the India is getting wealthier and it is not
practical to promote Nepal as an International destination to outbound travellers. Most stakeholders expressed
the value in offering services to the Indian middle class who are looking for a nice and affordable holiday
experience.
The need to review and refresh products was a consistent theme. Travel Agents need to take a good look at
the types of products and accommodations available in Nepal and match them to the needs and wants of
various clienteles. Infrastructure will need to be developed that will appeal to emerging and niche markets.
Inland transportation in interior Nepal is a challenge. Road infrastructure needs to be kept in a state of good
repair for comfortable journey. Air travel needs to become more commonplace and affordable. Getting to a
destination needs to be safe and predictable.
The lack of support for travel and tourism infrastructure such as trains and road transport was identified by
travel agents as a major issue. Further, there is a need to focus on rest stops, directional and interpretive
signage and customer service in general.
Target Markets
No surprise the key activity drivers for Nepal have not changed. A nice affordable family holiday with sightseeing,
shopping, soft outdoor adventure activities, visiting religious sites and Casino remain the most frequently
mentioned activities for travellers who express interest in visiting Nepal.
Over the short-term, say the next five years the growing Indian Middle Class will remain the mainstay for
Nepal Tourism. As such, Kathmandu and Pokhara should remain central to but not the only focus of marketing
efforts in order to broaden the visitor base. Secondary and emerging-market opportunities to draw youth,
adventure tourists and honeymooners need to be explored over the longer term. Interest in a Nepal holiday
is sustainable for Indian Middle Class as long as it is coupled with opportunities for shopping, dining and
exploring cities, local culture and history.
Investigating emerging markets of theme oriented niche tourism and the MNC weekend market also may
prove fruitful. The challenge is to position Nepal to appeal to these markets. Single activities are not sufficient
trip motivators as Indians want to do a lot in a short holiday. Many consumers want to see a combination of
outdoor adventure and medium to high-end accommodations and amenities. For most travellers all inclusive
or menu-type packages are attractive.
Nepal regularly needs to communicate with Indian visitors in an organized, efficient and friendly manner to
95
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Suggestions on Marketing Strategy, Policies and Programs
Chapter 8 for Nepal Tourism Board to Attract Indian Tourists
try to overcome the limited knowledge and safety misconceptions of potential visitors to Nepal. A consistent
message delivered by all players is essential if potential visitors are to understand the quality and variety of
things to see and do.
There are certain pertaining questions: How the Nepal experience is uniquely different from other vacation
experiences in India? Why would one choose this destination over others in India? Rich consumers want to
be assured that their trips will create a memorable experience so that they can treasure it for a long time.
After all, there’s a lot of interesting destinations which are competing on the similar price range.
Deloitte has made an analysis of factors influencing visitor behaviour. Political and economic factors have the
highest rating on what particular destinations a tourist will select. Other factors such as social and
infrastructure/ assets have been highlighted as shown in the figure 10.
96
Chapter 8
Next Steps
Nepal needs to build a foundation for the new marketing strategy and the key issues are:
There has never been a better time for Nepal to become more competitive as a tourist destination. Never has
the tourism industry and its stakeholders been more of one mind about the need for a marketing change to
drive the fortunes of the business in a more positive direction.
Market Nepal Differently – Beautiful place to visit…clean, pristine, safe with different experiences, solitude.
One brand, one printed piece.
Need to be truly Indian Middle Class consumer-focused. Provide incentives to Indian Travel Agents to do a
better job of marketing. Align efforts better. Organise regular FAM trips educating about different products
that Nepal has to offer and to develop markets like adventure tourism, etc.
Nepal needs to sell what you do best. Don’t market products to the wrong target market.
Start marketing a destination offering best value for the Indian Middle Class. For example “We are Nepal and
our product is the experience of exotic, interesting and memorable experiences.”
Make it clear that that Nepal is the destination which is assessable at low cost, but with all the options of
experiencing everything in one country – natural beauty, peace, rejuvenation, adventure. Need to keep it
simple.
97
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Suggestions on Marketing Strategy, Policies and Programs
Chapter 8 for Nepal Tourism Board to Attract Indian Tourists
Nepal – Now!
The goal of the new strategy is to maximize the limited marketing resources available to NTB through the
alignment of industry and NTB marketing ventures. The strategy that follows suggests that all levels of the
industry and government should initiate to take risks to get ahead of the competition. To do this, they should
focus on following three areas:
• A competitive offer for Nepal, targeting the right people, in the right places with the right message.
• A new way of working together that aligns the efforts of all the players as opposed to duplicating them.
Support and guidance for the industry in the form of tools that everyone can use to help align their
efforts under the overarching strategy.
• The proposed strategy should be based on “best numbers” outlook. It should not replace the marketing
efforts currently underway focusing on the avid and touring markets rather it should guide these and
present a road map for quick successes for new business. This strategic approach should be measured at
every stage of its implementation, so that it can be adjusted during the implementation period.
Recommendations
Markets: The main focus should be on “best numbers” markets – the growing Indian Middle Class – Nepal’s
strategy should be consumer-focused and keep on top of emerging lifestyle trends. Indian consumers are
generally not the travellers to International high end destinations. They normally choose Indian domestic
destinations and will chose Nepal, if it meets their holiday budget and desire expectations.
Stay Ahead of Competitors: NTB should leverage technology and effectively heed domestic competitors such
as Mussoorie, Agra and Jaipur.
Product: The main focus should be on the Family Holiday with emphasis on sightseeing and shopping. It is
very important to add and promote bundles for variety and new markets in addition to leveraging market
ready Kathmandu and Pokhara Products.
Positioning: There is a need to create a distinct underlying image of Nepal and use it to link efforts.
Competitive Advantage: The lessons learned over the years should be applied and implemented and best
practices from others should be taken into consideration to gain a competitive advantage.
Align and Coordinate: There is a need to re-align source markets and marketing tactics to leverage trip-
planning behaviour. This could be done with consistent communication strategies.
Take Advantage of Trends: There is an increasing disposable and discretionary income in the Indian Middle
Class. These consumers, and their pent-up demand, are prime targets for Nepal.
Time Deprivation: The trend is less time for leisure and more for shorter vacations. Therefore 3N/4D
holiday package can meet their requirements.
Listen to Perceptions and Act: NTB’s platform should link all levels of marketing initiatives and be distinctive.
98
Chapter 8
The current low awareness with the focused audience gives us the liberty to create a “new” Nepal.
Make it Easy to Buy and Use: Trips planning tools to capture consumer leads online and offer all inclusive
packages.
There is a monumental change taking place in the way consumers are accessing and using media across India
and there should be a judicial mix of spending patterns in all media vehicles including:
• TV
• Newspaper
• Magazines
• FM Radio
• Billboard
• Internet
A review of target markets show how Nepal need to allocate efforts discreetly to build opportunistic business,
while ensuring its core business is protected.
All media spend should focus on the Indian Middle Class Target group in both West and North India and match
Nepal’s interests to their demographic characteristics, travel habits, media consumption and lifestyle drivers.
The strategic direction that follows prioritizes how marketing communications tools can be leveraged against
the “best numbers” targets and markets described.
Public Relations
The use of public relations as a marketing tool is growing by leaps and bounds, as consumers disassociate
themselves from the fragmented and ever increasing number of advertising messages they are receiving on
a daily basis. The public relations strategy for the marketing of Nepal should support the positioning and
experiences that best exemplify the distinctive nature of the “Best Numbers” offer. Trends should be carefully
monitored to ensure that the appropriate blend of traditional and new media are used as, per target group
habits.
99
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Suggestions on Marketing Strategy, Policies and Programs
Chapter 8 for Nepal Tourism Board to Attract Indian Tourists
Traditionally, consumer and tradeshow participation has been a primary consumer touch point utilized by
NTB, Travel operators, and other stakeholder groups.
Currently, NTB participates in trade shows, despite the fact that they have a high cost per visitor acquisition
and are, as a marketing communications medium, on the decline in terms of both frequency and attendance.
Familiarization Trips
Criteria for media and trade familiarization trip funding should be based on the ability of the visiting media to
showcase Nepal to the target audience.
Try and reach potential visitors by paying attention heavily on the communications channels preferred by
people planning to travel to Nepal. Publications should be used as fulfillment pieces for pre-qualified leads,
with less emphasis on directories and more on trip planning tools.
Consumers want information specific to the experience that facilitates their purchase decision. Furthermore
their purchase decision depends on appropriate design of collateral that should be readily available from
tourism shows, sites, tourism offices and kiosks.
For this strategy to be successful there needs to be an ongoing commitment to continuously undertake research
to ensure Nepal maintains a competitive advantage. To effectively implement the new strategy and achieve
the implementation of the cascading approach and the alignment of efforts, the current funds spent on
marketing initiatives and human resource efforts should need to shift over the course of the strategy.
The environment that the Nepal tourism industry operates is a dynamic one that regularly shifts and changes
as new opportunities and challenges emerge out. Seeking new investment from the public and private sector
should be a priority for all parties to increase the marketing spend to reach the “best numbers” markets and
drive consumers to take a holiday decision that should eventually link to the suppliers who can fulfill the
promise.
100
Chapter 8
The following budget allocation strategy should assist stakeholders in understanding the shift in effort required
to address the changing marketing landscape.
The new marketing investment strategy should support conventional as well as Internet marketing strategies,
public relations, and should result in lead generation and targeted industry co-operative marketing programs.
Television
As the focus is on increasing volumes, the following suggestion should be taken into consideration:
Suggested Mediums
101
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Suggestions on Marketing Strategy, Policies and Programs
Chapter 8 for Nepal Tourism Board to Attract Indian Tourists
Newspapers
Due to extreme clutter and expensive rates for English Medium newspapers, it is suggested to follow a focussed
approach on the target audience using Vernacular newspapers. This shall result in greater exposure amongst
target audience at a much lower cost.
To ensure prompt conversions, tactical advertising should be done during the beginning of holiday decision
making period along with travel agent contact details for ensuring faster conversions.
Suggested Mediums
Magazines
Following the same approach, it is recommended to choose appropriate Vernacular language publication.
Suggested publications are Griha Shobha and Meri Saheli in Hindi, Chitralekha in Marathi and Gujarati. A
sponsorship contest along with an advertorial with travel agent participation would create the maximum
impact.
FM Radio
In 2007, Indian Radio Advertising Industry recorded a growth of 24% and is now becoming a preferred medium
for targeting the local audience of the region. Hence, intensive use of FM Radio as a medium to attract
interested holiday makers is a great option. (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2008)
Internet
Tactical use of popular websites such as google, msn and facebook can create lasting impressions on the user.
While this medium has not been used in the past, it can be used to interact with a new audience.
Consumer Promotions
Following the overwhelming success of shopping mall promotions in Delhi in June 2009, it is strongly
recommended organising similar promotions in the target markets for getting stronger conversions.
At least 6 promotions in one year are suggested and the target cities should be:
102
Chapter 8
Travel trade needs to be an important component for this exercise as most consumers need an instant
solution for prompt decision making.
Road shows result in networking of local travel agents with Nepalese travel agents and this gives an opportunity
to discuss the business requirements in details. Greater number of Road Shows are required for greater
penetration in the Indian markets. Suggested cities for next 12 months are:
These activities are necessary to sustain the Indian market. At least 10 travel trade and media FAM trips
should be organised for ensuring better results.
103
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Suggestions on Marketing Strategy, Policies and Programs
Chapter 8 for Nepal Tourism Board to Attract Indian Tourists
A concerted effort on the part of the NTB, Airlines, and Travel agents to commit to a new partnership is the
starting point to make this work.
Increased investment to support new and innovative tactics and marketing reach, clarity of roles and functions,
strategically directed implementation are strongly suggested.
In order to ensure that this strategy is sustainable, the following measures need to be considered and
implemented:
• Listen to the consumer – Be consumer-focused rather than industry-focused, and leverage trends and
behaviours strategically.
• Focus on “best numbers” markets and targets. Allocate the scarce marketing efforts to focus on the
places and people with the most potential, but not limit to them. Leverage the demographic and economic
realities, and ensure that the potential of Nepal as a market is well-tapped.
• Start with North India and do it well - Leverage the potential of Nepal itself as an easy to reach and a near
by domestic holiday destination.
• Stay ahead of competitors – Nepal should leverage technology and effectively bring out the story and
experiences of visitors via the Internet.
• Measure and report - It’s crucial to the success of this strategy that a track of success of the investment
and ROI is kept to on focus the target, and to meet objectives and stay ahead of competitive destinations
of Nepal.
104
Chapter 9
Month Core Focus Suggested Activities Brand North India West India
Building Market Market
Jan Enabling online sales RFP for website design * * *
Travel Trade Education Travel Agent FAM trips * *
Feb Travel Trade Education India Travel Trade Road show
Pune –Mumbai-Nashik * *
March Travel Trade Education India Travel Trade Road show
Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna * *
Destination Awareness Media FAM trip * *
April Consumer Awareness Television Advertising * * *
Consumer Awareness FM Radio Delhi- Mumbai * * *
Consumer Awareness Internet banner campaign * * *
Consumer Promotion Direct Interaction –Shopping mall
Promotion Mumbai & Pune * *
May Consumer Awareness FM Radio Delhi- Mumbai * * *
Consumer Awareness Internet banner campaign * * *
June Consumer Awareness FM Radio Delhi- Mumbai * * *
Consumer Awareness Internet banner campaign * * *
July Travel Trade Education India Travel Trade Road show
Chandigarh-Shimla-Ambala * *
Aug Travel Trade Education India Travel Trade Road show
Ahmedabad-Bhopal-Indore * *
Travel Trade Education Travel Agent FAM trip * *
Sep Consumer Awareness Television Advertising * * *
Consumer Awareness Newspaper Advertising * * *
Consumer Awareness Magazines Advertising * * *
Consumer Promotion Direct Interaction –Shopping mall
Promotion – Noida & Gurgaon * *
Oct Consumer Awareness FM Radio Delhi- Mumbai * * *
Travel Trade Education India Travel Trade Road shows
Amritsar-Ludhiana-Jallandhar * *
Nov Consumer Awareness Newspaper Advertising * * *
Consumer Awareness FM Radio Delhi- Mumbai * * *
Consumer Promotion Direct Interaction –Shopping mall
Promotion – Amritsar & Chandigarh * *
Consumer Awareness Magazines Advertising * * *
Dec Consumer Awareness FM Radio Delhi- Mumbai *
Travel Trade Education India Travel Trade Road show
Delhi-Jaipur Gwalior * *
Destination Awareness Media FAM trip * *
105
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Annexure I
Industry & IT
Tourism and Travel Industry - a heterogeneous industry made of complex and consists of many components
parts. Intangible, perishable and international service industry is getting right business curve backed by
information technology now days.
The best example of information technology application in Travel and Tourism is automated reservation system
for Railways & Airlines. There are IT solutions for hotels, motels, hospitality, travel intermediaries, entertainment
and tourism at par to streamline business processes, improve customer relationships and more efficient
operations.
1. A competitive industry with new entrance of global players coming from abroad
2. Continuous change in customer demands
3. Expectations of a tourist are increased and look for more convenience and value for money
4. Tourists are more informed
5. There is a need of automated technologies
Who needs information? Before starting use of information technology, it is important to know the ground
needs of information sharing and accessibility. Travel and Tourism Industry is consisted of tourist, travel agents,
service providers, government and private tourism offices or consultants.
Tourist – a key consumer needs details on destinations, facilities, availabilities, prices, and geography & climate
information. If it is out of country then details about border controls & relations.
Travel agents look for detail information about tourist (consumer) trends in the market, service providers,
destinations, facilities, availabilities, prices, tour packages and direct contact with other branches. Service
providers need to know details of consumer, travel agents, competitors and agencies.
Tourism offices search for trends in industry, size and nature of tourism flows, policies and plans for
development. IT enabled tourism is coined as ‘e – tourism’. Online tourism is at a platform that enables direct
booking, easy payment for end-user, business-to-business trading for product providers, travel agents and
resellers.
106
Annexure I
E–Commerce—all the web sites and portals launched by government as well as private organizations
offer a wide range of tourism products and services like airlines, hotels, restaurants, camp-sites, tours,
activity centers, concerts, festivities, shopping and many more with choices of assortments of services.
Plan their tour online through agents’ web sites. Reservation or shopping of facilities for train, airlines, cruise,
hotels, resorts, motels, rental cars and adventures can be done on line. Still leaving a part of simple web
based portal, which just provides static information and beautiful pictures with less updated knowledge and
data transfer, tourism industry is expecting more practical and satisfied chain solutions from Information
Technology.
Advance technologies in Tourism Industry rather than dot com and e-commerce, travel and tourism industry
is looking for solution like E-Business or U-Business (Universal Business) solutions.
Customer relationship management – CRM, based system enables service provider to provide knowledge,
value and efficient service to its clients. CRM enables service provider to build up a life time relationship by
providing on time solutions. Especially tourism industry needs excellent CRM solutions to assist visitors or
clients before flying on tour, during tour and after tour services. CRM solutions can be provided to a visitor
through web, email, call center, kiosks and traveling information offices.
Value chain integration – Tourism industry is a chain of many service providers. In long term solutions, cost
cutting & effectiveness in data & information transfer, speed in transactions and looking towards heavy
multimedia based services – back end systems need excellent value chain integration through solutions like
ERP and CRM. However till today applications of CRM and ERP are not up to the industrial remarks as tourism
industry is kind of service industry. Knowledge Management Systems and business intelligence systems have
wide scope of implementation in tourism industry.
Comparing history timelines and providing instant knowledge about place on the spot makes eager to know
more about place to a tourist. Even information enables analyst to find tourist’s behavior and trends with
data and information. To find out customer’s demand is no more difficult task. Use of advance technologies
Interactive Digital Television (IDTV), Mobile technologies and Internet are carving new faces in customer
services for tourism industry. That’s great for adventure tourist. Through a mobile, tourist can be guided
through cultural heritage through multi – language voice, text or images. Even it is possible for a tourist to
find details on fees, opening days and timings for nearby places, find bookshop, cafe, restaurant or ATM from
where ever s/he is present.
In advanced countries, e – tourism concept was applied and put in practice in last decade. However e –
tourism is still in growing phase with advance technology’s application. But for developing countries and
underdeveloped countries it is under capitalised. With application of e-tourism, the travelers would be able
to make online reservation, bookings and receive immediate confirmation, this would remove a lot of obstacles
that are faced by a tourist. Europe is ahead of other continents in development of travel industry with nearly
49% market share. America is second with 26 % and Asia with 17 % at third position.
107
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
The Trends in Information, Communication and
Annexure I Technology in Tourism Development
Tourism being an employment oriented sector, it is estimated that the hotel and the catering sector provide
more than 10% of the total employment generated by the tourism industry. Being a labour oriented industry,
directly in contact with the country’s tourists, skills required by personnel engaged in this sector are different
from those required by personnel engaged in other sectors. At present there are 24 Institutes of Hotel
Management (IHMs), and 11 Food Craft Institutes (FCIs). The IHMs conduct diploma courses, post graduate
diploma courses, craft and certificate courses. The FCIs conduct diploma courses in cookery, food and beverage
services, housekeeping, etc.
In order to harness the resources and provide a central thrust, the MoT has also established the National
Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology (NCHM&CT). The main objectives of the Council are
to advise the Government on coordinated development of Hotel Management and Catering Education to
prescribe educational and other qualifications for staff in the institutions to give certification and accreditation,
and to standardize the courses. Indian MoT encouraged the Institutes of hotel management to explore
appropriate means to generate their additional resources during the 10th Plan, so that these institutions
gradually become self supporting at least on revenue accounts. Assistance was given to them to enhance
their infrastructural facilities.
The NCHM&CT, which has emerged as an apex body in the country for hospitality management education,
was assisted for construction of its new building at Noida. The building is almost ready and it is expected that
it will meet the requirements of Council. The existing FCIs, IHMs and the institutes in the private sector cater
to mainly the organized sector. The unorganized sector consisting of small hotels, dhabas, restaurants and
other joints spread all over the country hardly get an opportunity of training from skilled and professional
trainers in the hospitality sector. As it is not possible and viable to set up FCIs in every district, a number of
Capacity Building Programmes for the workers of unorganized sector were organized by FCIs and IHMs during
the 10th Plan through outreach training programmes.
Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM), established in 1983 as a registered society under
the MoT primarily for developing and promoting education, training and research in travel and tourism, which
was just running a single P.G. Diploma Course, has started two new courses during the 10th Plan i.e., a Bachelor
Degree in Tourism (a three-year course) and a Masters Degree in Business Administration (a two-year course)
with specialization in tourism. During the year, the Institute has started construction of its Campus at
Bhubaneswar for its Eastern Regional Centre on the land provided by the State Government free of cost. The
Institute also conducted a number of capacity building programmes for the workers in the unorganized sector
like Railway Coolies, Taxi walas, Dhaba and Hotel Staff, unemployed youth, etc. The Institute also conducted
a number of Guide Training Programmes during the plan period to upgrade the skills of existing guides as also
to recruit new guides. During the 10th Plan, the Institute has become almost self sufficient to meet its regular
revenue expenditure.
Guide training courses are organized by the MoT and also by the State Governments. These courses include
programmes for fresh tourist guides and refresher courses for those already active in guide services. The
contents of these courses were restructured during the 10th Plan. Courses were also organized for Government
officials who have an interface with the tourists.
108
Annexure II
All the athletes would be offered free accommodation, security, a pollution free environment, free
transportation and entertainment options for the non competition times. They will be offered a free trip to
the famed Taj Mahal – the ‘Seventh Wonder of the World’ clubbed with the other heritage sites such as the
Red Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Sikandra Itmad-ul-Daulah’s Tomb, Chini Ka Rauza, Ram Bagh, Soami Bagh, Dayal
Bagh and many more.
Apart from that other major tourists spots in India including the Shimla, Jhansi, Kerala Backwaters, Goa beaches,
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Rajasthan Forts and Palaces, Dehradun, Haridwar, Ranikhet, Punjab etc are
likely to attract large number of foreign tourists in the year 2010. Medical and ayurvedic sectors will also be
equally beneficiary during the commonwealth games in view of India’s popularity in ancient tradition of yoga
and ayurveda and the availability of low cost medical treatments in India.
Tour agents in India are opened with the new hot travel deals for 2010 Commonwealth Games for the foreign
tourists. They have come up with the exclusive packages at the most attractive prices that are truly rewarding
from the economic point of view. Tourists have been making online reservation in advance for the upcoming
Common Wealth Games.
Over 1,000 Delhites have registered to be part of government’s Bed and Breakfast scheme for Commonwealth
games visitors. With world class interiors, top-of-the-line facilities, well-maintained bathrooms and smoke
detectors, many homes in the posh southern and central parts of the city are getting ready to welcome the
one lakh extra tourists who are expected to descend on the Capital for Commonwealth Games 2010.
Some additional initiatives taken by the Government-the Delhi government’s Bed and Breakfast scheme has
attracted 1,000 Delhites who have a room to spare. However, the government is already under duress as the
planned hotel rooms to make up for the shortage are running behind schedule. A parliamentary panel had
predicted a shortage of 14,000 rooms in the city. The government had planned to register 3,000 rooms under
the Bed and Breakfast scheme launched two-and-a-half years ago but so far, only 1,000 rooms have been
registered.
The event will witness a lot of foreign tourists coming to India. Most of the foreigners are unaware about
Indian traditions and culture. Staying with an Indian family and sharing the food on the breakfast table will
certainly help them to know country better and create a bond .The scheme was launched to provide a clean
and affordable place for foreigners and domestic tourists, including an opportunity for foreign tourists to stay
with an Indian family and to experience Indian customs and traditions and relish authentic Indian cuisine.
This will also add to the income of these home owners without adding much to their expenses. The India-
wide scheme has particular importance in Delhi, which is expected to be short of about 18,000 rooms when
its hosts the Commonwealth Games in 2010. The tourism ministry is banking heavily on the scheme to bail it
out of the severe shortage of rooms. “The ministry is expecting around a lakh international tourists to the
country during the Games and it is a golden opportunity
109
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
The Commonwealth Games 2010
Annexure II
Advertising during this time will rope in Indian as well as international visibility and attention and the cost for
advertising in metros and popular tourist destination will bring in priceless benefits. Hoardings, bus stand
shelters, metros are some of the options which can have major impact on the onlookers looking for a weekend
getaway. Creating weekend gateways packages and advertising at the right time with easy booking process
might be able to lure the visitors traffic towards Nepal as thousands of international tourists are expected to
arrive for Commonwealth game and a three day getaway is something that can be aimed for.
110
Annexure III
The term hotels include restaurants, beach resorts, and other tourist complexes providing accommodation
and/or catering and food facilities to tourists. Tourism related industry include travel agencies, tour operating
agencies and tourist transport operating agencies, units providing facilities for cultural, adventure and wild
life experience to tourists, surface, air and water transport facilities to tourists, leisure, entertainment,
amusement, sports, and health units for tourists and Convention/Seminar units and organizations.
1. Up to 3% of the capital cost of the project is proposed to be paid for technical and consultancy services
including fees for architects, design, supervision etc.
2. Up to 3% of net turnover is payable for franchising and marketing/publicity support fee, and up to 10% of
gross operating profit is payable for management fee, including incentive fee. (Department of Industrial
Policy & Promotion, 2003)
Foreign tourist arrivals are expected to grow to 10 million by 2010-12 and the domestic tourism is expected
to increase by 15% to 20% over the next five years as per the MoT expectations based on the growth in the
last one decade. There is a rapid growth in average room rates and is expected to continue until sufficient
new supply come on stream (average increase is 21% since 2004-06 in 4 & 5 star segment). Government of
India is allowing 100% FDI in Hotels and Tourism, through the automatic route and has also identified the
investment opportunity of about $8-10 billion in the next 5 years in tourism sector. India has significant
potential for becoming a major global tourist destination. It is estimated there is a need of around 10 billion
US $ required for development of tourism as per the different state tourism estimates for the next five years.
The long term capital requirement of all states is estimated around 56 billion US $ for the next 20 years.
A rapidly growing middle class, the advent of corporate incentive travel and the multinational companies into
India has boosted prospects for tourism. India’s easy visa rules, public freedoms and its many attractions as
an ancient civilization makes tourism development easier than in many other countries. In order to attract
111
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in
Annexure III Indian Tourism
more visitors, India needs to increase room supply, open further its skies to increase air capacity, and
upgrade its airports, roads and other infrastructure to global standards. Also tourism development needs
to be pursued with a focus on sustainability. Though the Government of India is allowing 100% FDI in
automatic route to India in tourism sector and there is a wide gap between the demand and supply of
hotel rooms and other tourism infrastructure projects, Tourism has attracted the FDI 660.87 million US $
which is 1.46 percent of the total FDI inflow into India from April 2000 to December 2007.
112
Annexure IV
As Dubai along with Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore have been added as new destinations
to the Mumbai film repertoire, Tourism Boards the world over along with Mumbai and India are clamoring for
a slice of the Indian film industry which is expected to cross a turnover of Rs.140 billion, as per a KPMG
consultancy report. With the Hindi movie sector in India selling a billion more tickets annually than perhaps
Hollywood, showcasing themes from all over the world, Kashmir and Kerala have given way to world
destinations sites as more producers go westwards to film their movie musicals.
The Indian Tourism Ministry and the Maharashtra government too are gearing up looking forward to create
private or public partnerships to promote Bollywood Tourism, especially in the United Kingdom which has
already worked out a counter tourism strategy to lure Hindi film fans. The British move is to allow Hindi film
buffs to walk the paths of the now famous British locales of London, Scotland and Yorkshire and relive their
favorite Bollywood’s filmy moments. With India’s official carrier proposing to add new flights to London and
European sectors to rope in the large Indian expatriate community, Britain’s Tourism department is already
pitching high on Bollywood through the sale and distribution of an innovative “Bollywood Map of Britain”,
with dozens of dots that identify now-seen scenes from Hindi blockbusters- locations such as the Blenheim
Palace, Waddesden Manor- used extensively for the shots of Kabhie Khushie Kabhie Gham (K3G) and many
more such spots made famous in Bollywood movies.
The Hong Kong Tourism Board has recently accepted Bollywood’s populism and has stepped up its might to
attract and promote Hong Kong as a destination for filming Bollywood films. In the recent past, Hong Kong
recorded a 24.7 per cent growth in visitors from India and this has led the tourism board to learn certain
movie making linkages between Mumbai and Hong Kong which has plans to develop destination and tour
packages revolving around Bollywood and also market the extensive production centers in Hong Kong to
Indian movie makers. The Singapore Tourism Board in 2006 launched a “Krrish” tour package.
The Swiss success of Bollywood has now trickled onto Finland and the Finnish Tourism Board (FTB) in the
recent past has organized programs for Bollywood’s dream merchants to familiarize themselves with Finland.
The FTB proposes to give location subsidies. The idea of the FTB is to sell the midnight sun and Northern
Lights of the archipelago and bring it under Bollywood’s arch lights. With a direct flight to Helsinki from India,
the prospects look very promising .With over 900 films being produced in India each year, the entire fan
following in Bollywood has definitely redefined the tourism sectors globally. With film festivals and awards
shows the rage of the times, more and more countries are offering their destination points to set shop for
Bollywood’s pre and post productions, also setting aside budgets for awards and glitterati shows. The Malaysian
Government had set aside about $US 2.7 million to host the 2006 Global Indian Film Awards (GIFA) thus
pushing up sales for Malaysia as a prime Bollywood destination, already made famous in a host of Hindi films
.Most popular being the Petronas twin towers, Langkawi and Penang.
113
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Role of Bollywood and
Annexure IV International Tourism Boards
Tourist’s destinations in Amsterdam, Zakopane in Poland and New Zealand had a new lease from Indian tour
operators following the success of films such as Hum Tum, Fanaa and Kaho Na Pyar Hein respectively. What
“Lord of the Rings” did to New Zealand with the surge in its “Frodo economy”, the Indian Bollywood Industry
is toning up to the global travel and hospitality industry.
Nepal is yet to tap in the mainstream Bollywood Industry and with such close proximity to India and with a
variety of destinations to offer to the Indian movie industry, Nepal’s Hospitality & Tourism industry and the
Indian film industry can both benefit mutually as the cost involved for the industry would dramatically be
lower as compared to any other international destination without compromising on the scenic beauty and
Nepal would get priceless recognition, visibility needless to say much better than what a 30 sec commercial
can establish on prime time. However some interesting schemes need to be launched keeping in mind the
requirements of the Indian film industry and it should be brought to notice of Indian Film makers, however it
would take a lot of effort to lure this clientele. NTB is suggested to develop:
• Strategic Planning
• Schemes
• Great Incentives
• High End FAM trips
• Presentations followed by Gala Nights
These are just few examples of practices followed by various tourism Boards to entice the film Industry to
take notice.
114
Annexure V
References
Assocham Research Bureau. 2008. Globalisation Growth and People. New Delhi: The Associated Chambers of
Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
Deloitte. 2008. The Economic Case for the Visitor Economy: Final Report. London: Deloitte.
Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion. 2003. Manual on Foreign Direct Investment in India: Policy and
Procedures. New Delhi: Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.
Director General Tourism. 2000. Tourism Development in India. New Delhi: Press Information Bureau, Govt.
of India.
ICRIER. 2009. Working Paper No. 234: Indian Economic Outlook 2008-09 and 2009-10. New Delhi: Indian
Council for Research on International Economic Relations.
Investment & Technology Promotion Division. 2009. Monthly Economic Analysis: Fortune 2009. New Delhi:
Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.
Kanjilal, G. 2006. Opportunities Today: Tourism & Economic Benefits. New Delhi: Ministry of Tourism, Govt.
of India.
Kapoor, P. R. American Express study: Inside the Affluent Space in India. American Express.
Keong. L. W. 2008. India’s Consumption Story Stays Strong Despite Global Crisis: India Retail Forum 2008.
Germany: India Retail Forum.
National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER). 2003. Domestic Tourism Study. New Delhi: Ministry
of Tourism & Culture, Government of India.
Planning Commission of India. 2006. Steering Committee on Tourism for the Formulation of the Eleventh
Plan (2007-2012). New Delhi: Government of India.
Sharma, G. 2009. Job Opportunities in the National Capital: A Comparative Analysis of Delhi region & NCR
cities. New Delhi: Research Bureau, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
Subbaro, S. P. 2008. Conference on Tourism in India – Challenges Ahead, 15-17 May 2008: A Study on Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI) in Indian Tourism. Kozhikode: Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
The McKinsey Global Institute. 2007. ‘Bird of Gold’: The Rise of India’s Consumer Market, by the year 2025.
New York: McKinsey & Company.
UNWTO. 2009. The Indian Outbound Travel Market. Madrid: World Tourism Organisation.
Urban Age. 2007. Integrated City Making Report. London: London School of Economics.
115
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
References
Annexure V
World Economic Forum. 2009. Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report. Geneva: World Economic Forum.
World Travel & Tourism Council. 2009. Travel & Tourism Economic Impact. London: World Travel & Tourism
Council.
World Travel & Tourism Council, 2009. Key Facts at a Glance: Tourism Economic Research Country Reports,
India. London: World Travel & Tourism Council.
Electronic Article
Airline Network News & Analysis. 22nd May 2009. Indian domestic traffic down 13% in 2009 Q1; international
demand also down. Surrey: Airline Network News & Analysis. Available from:
http://www.anna.aero/2009/05/22/indian-domestic-traffic-down-13-in-2009-q1-international-demand-also-
down/. (Accessed on 01 June 2009).
Credit Suisse. 2008. Credit Suisse Opens Wealth Management Business in Mumbai. Mumbai: Credit Suisse.
Available from:
https://www.credit-suisse.com/news/en/media_release.jsp?ns=40793. (Accessed on 01 June 2009).
Economic Times. 25th Dec 2004. India, development incomplete with 62 percent living in slums. Mumbai:
Economic Times. Available from:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5936/is_200412/ai_n23939402/. (Accessed on 08 May 2009).
IAMAI. Tue, 27th Jan 2009. 45 Million Internet Users in India. New Delhi: The Internet & Mobile Association of
India. Available from:
http://www.iamai.in/PRelease_Detail.aspx?nid=1801&NMonth=1&NYear=2009.(Accessed on 24 March 2009).
The Financial Express. 12th March 2008. Indian Tourism to generate $100 bn in ’08. New Delhi: The Financial
Express. Available from:
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/indian-tourism-to-generate-100-bn-in-08/283514/. (Accessed on 23rd
May 2009).
Websites
Nielsen India Outbound Travel Monitor. September 2008. Available from: www.asiatraveltips.com/news08/
189-IndiaTourism.shtml
Planning Commission. Government of India: Five Year Plans. Available from: http://
www.planningcommission.gov.in/
116
Annexure V
ETC Market Intelligence Group. 2007. ETC Market Insights: India. Brussels: European Travel Commission.
Market Research Division. March 2007. Report on Evaluation Study in Selected Overseas Markets for Market
Research Division. New Delhi: Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.
The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) Research Team & India Convention Promotion Bureau.
India as a Global Conventions Destination Prospects & Strategies Study. New Delhi: Ministry of Tourism,
Government of India.
117
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Annexure VI
Research Questionnaires
118
Annexure VI
Travel Agent
Person Contacted
Address
Address
City & Pin
1. Are you selling International Packages ?
119
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Annexure VII
Query 1
How Nepal Tourism Board can work out strategies with Indian Tour Operators as well as how Nepalese Tour
Operators can work out strategies with their Indian counterparts?
In order to ensure that Indian Tour Operators promote movement to Nepal, it is very important for Nepal
Tourism Board to give sufficient support to the Indian Tour Operator.
This could be done in several ways and we recommend the following strategies:
Currently Nepal Tourism Board is distributing Marketing Collaterals and Sales Support Material only during
Trade Exhibitions and Road Shows. It is suggested that Nepal Tourism Board should offer personalised Marketing
Collaterals and Sales Support Material to top 10 travel agents in each key city on an year round basis. This will
ensure that travel agents have enough promotion material to sell Nepal on an year round basis. Personalised
Marketing Collaterals will increase motivation levels of Travel agents and also enable prospective travelers to
contact Travel agents with available contact details on the sales material as and when they wish to travel to
Nepal.
Currently, there is no advertising support to Indian travel agents who wish to promote Nepal. Nepal Tourism
Board could consider floating a scheme offering certain percentage of cost share to all Indian Travel agents
who are promoting Nepal by releasing Newspaper advertisements.
This will ensure that we get regular publicity in mainline publications on all year round basis.
• 100% Nepal Centric advertisements with NTB logo and other details
• Publishing in prominent publications.
Whenever Nepal Tourism Board is releasing their own advertisements in Indian Publications, they should
consider giving contact details of Indian Travel agents in the advertisements. This will ensure that conversions
are faster as intending visitors can immediately contact the travel agent and book packages upon reading the
newspapers.
120
Annexure VII
Nepal Tourism Board can consider offering cost share support for travel agents promoting Nepal in local city
based events such as:
• New Year / Diwali Expositions
• Local Club / Cultural Centre celebrations
• Shopping Mall promotions
This ensures that Nepal gets top of the mind recall in local events and the travel agents can sell packages
faster.
To push maximum traffic from India, Nepal Tourism Board could announce Travel agent schemes with cash
incentives. This will ensure that travel agents have high motivation to sell Nepal packages and get rewarded
as well.
The scheme could run for 3 months and travel agents be paid cash incentives for achieving passenger targets.
There is a requirement to make a special incentive scheme for promotion of MICE movements to Nepal as
well.
Nepal Tourism should consider creating a special MICE promotion package for travel trade including the
following:
• Complimentary FAM trip for the corporate which are planning a MICE delegation to Nepal.
• Special cash based incentives for travel agents who are bringing in a large delegation.
• Special MICE offering for the corporate who has brought the delegation. This could include:
- Gala Dinner for the MICE delegates
- Complimentary entertainment during the visit for one evening
- Mementoes for the guests
- Special ticket prices for monument visits for large MICE delegations
Currently, all FAM trips are being organized for owners / senior managers of the Travel agencies. Nepal Tourism
Board should consider organizing a sales staff FAM trip for sales employees of the travel agencies. This will
educate the sales staff and also motivate them to sell Nepal packages better.
Following activities could be undertaken to develop synergies between Nepalese and Indian Tour Operators
• Organization of more Travel Trade Road Shows in India with active participation from Nepalese tour
operators
• Inviting Indian Tour operators to Nepal Trade Events such NATA mart
• Conducting Joint workshops with Nepalese and Indian Tour operators in Nepal
121
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Responses to Queries Made during Presentation
Annexure VII at Kathmandu, Nepal on 25 th October 2009
Query 2
As per the latest figures released by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the number of Indians
travelling abroad in 2008-09 (April 1 to March 31) touched 10.8 million, which was up by a million over the
2007-08 figure of 9.8 million.
The Indian outbound travel market had grown from 3.7 million in 1997 to 9.8 million international departures
in 2007; the pace of growth has accelerated since 2004 at an average annual growth rate of over 16%.
The Indian outbound travel has now crossed the 10- million mark for the first time ever and as per the WTTC
report, India now is the third largest outbound travel market in the Asia Pacific region. It also predicts that the
world’s travel and tourism economy’s size will contract by 3.6 per cent this year, but economies such as India,
China and Brazil will still be drivers of growth.
India is expected to grow by 10 per cent in the number of outbound Indian tourists in 2009-10.
Query 3
As per a recent survey done by IMRB International and Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI],
India had as on September 2008 45.3 million active internet users. Urban users continue to dominate internet
use contributing to 42 million of the 45 million odd users.
Nepal Tourism Board could consider following options for capturing Indian Outbound tourism market via the
medium of Internet marketing:
122
Annexure VII
Query 4
How Nepalese Tour Operators can take Advantage of the Internet Marketing Opportunities
As mentioned in the previous page, Nepal Tourism stakeholders should use Internet as a major medium to
book Indian travellers.
Following roadmap could be used by Nepal Tourism Board for enabling internet as a booking medium for
Nepal
Step 1 Design of a Nepal Centric direct sales website with the following facilities:
Information on Nepal
- Provision of Readymade instant availability packages by Nepalese travel agents
- Provision of instant Air ticketing by Nepal Air, Air India and Jet Airways.
- Indian Rupee payment gateway for travel packages and airline tickets.
Step 2 Usage of Google Adwords and Adsense to capture interested Indian Outbound tourists and bring to
above website
Step 3 Increase of traffic to above website by heavy promotions on popular Indian websites such as
www.ndtv.com and www.timesofindia.com
Step 4 Brand Reinforcement by advertising and promotions on social networking sites such as Facebook,
Orkut and Linkedin.
123
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010
Travel Agents
Akbar Travels of India P. Ltd. Chawla Travel Services Grandeur Travels & Tours P Ltd
Akbar Bhavan, 69/71Janjikar Street, Shop No. 23, Residency Road, 4, Scindia House,
Crawford Market, NAGPUR - 440001 Second Floor,
MUMBAI - 400003 India NEW DELHI - 110001
India India
Civica Travels Private Limited
Anderson Travels P. Ltd. Aakriti Towers,19, Vidhan Sabha Marg, Great Escape Travels Pvt.
Veena Chambers, Uttar Pradesh Limited
21, Dalal Street Fort, LUCKNOW - 226001 5, Cambata Building J T Road,
MUMBAI - 400023 India Next to Eros Cinema, Churchgate,
India MUMBAI - 400020
Contact Tour & Travels India
A-One Travels LGF-1, Dhan Nirman Complex,
Ground Floor, Suraj Chanda Cinema 15 A-Ashok Marg, (Near S.B.I.) Great Value Travels
Complex, City Centre, LUCKNOW - 226001 1st Floor, Hotel Clarks Avadh,
AMRITSAR - 143001 India Avadh Bazar, 8 M.G. Marg,
India LUCKNOW - 226001
Crystal Tours & Travels Pvt. Ltd. India
Balaji Travels Pvt Ltd 401, Sakar-IV, Opposite Town-Hall
6, Raheja Centre, 214 Free Press Journal Ashram Road, Ellisbridge, Hargobind Travels
Road, AHMEDABAD - 380006 S.C.O. 94-95, Sector 34-A,
Nariman Point India Behind Picaddaly Theatre
MUMBAI - 400021 CHANDIGARH - 160022
India Disha Travel India
103,Shreya House, Pereira Hill Rd,
Bhagwati Travels Andheri Kurla Rd,Andheri (E), Heena Airways
171, Subhash Chandra Bose Road, MUMBAI - 400099 29-Ground Floor, Sriram Tower
NAGPUR - 440018 India Ashok Marg, Near Shakti Bhawan,
India LUCKNOW - 226001
Evergreen Travels India
Bhagyashri Travels Pvt. Ltd. S.C.O. # 87-88, Sector 34-A,
11, Namjoshi Bhavan, Subcity Centre, Holiday Maker (India) Pvt Ltd
486, Sadashiv Peth, CHANDIGARH - 160022 USO House, 6, Special Institutional
L.B. Shastri Road, India Area,
PUNE - 411030 Qutab Hotel Road
India Girikand Travels Pvt Ltd NEW DELHI - 110067
759/90 B Bhandarkar Institute Raod, India
Bhavi Tours & Travels Deccan Gymkhana,
8, Rainbow Complex, PUNE - 411004 Impact Tours (India) P. Ltd
Stadium Road, India N-33/10 Middle Circle,
AHMEDABAD - 380009 Connaught Place,
India Globe Forex & Travels Ltd. NEW DELHI - 110001
Goodluck Mansion, India
Blue Sky Worldwide Travels Panch Batti Crossing, M.I. Road,
SCO-188-190, JAIPUR - 302001 Incentive Destinations P. Ltd.
Sector 34-A India M-10, Greater Kailash Part - II
CHANDIGARH - 160034 NEW DELHI - 110048
India Grand Travel Planners (P) Ltd. India
14-16 1st Floor, S.C.O. 55-56,
Buena Vista Travels Pvt Ltd Sector 17-C, Indica Travels & Tours Pvt Ltd
23,Swastik Chambers, Sion-Trombay CHANDIGARH - 160017 D-52, Ground Floor, NDSE Part I,
Road, Chembur, India NEW DELHI - 110049
MUMBAI - 400071 India
India
124
Travel Agents
Indoglobal Travels Pvt Ltd Leisure Trips Paras Worldwide Tours and
Shridhar Smriti Behind Dr.Deodhar’s 207, Aditya, B/H. Travels
New Hospital Abhijeet 1/Side M K Hotel, Distt. Shopping
Gokhale Road, Thane (W) Mithakali Six Roads Centre,
MUMBAI - 400602 AHMEDABAD - 380006 Ranjit Avenue,
India India AMRITSAR - 143001
India
Indra Travel Consultancy Lynx Tour and Travels
Services 140, 1st Floor, Antriksh Bhawan, Perfect Connections Limited
12, Shree Sai Tower, Connaught Place, T/A Uniglobe Perfect Connections,
273, Narayan Peth, NEW DELHI - 110001 101, Setu, S.P. Nagar Road,
PUNE - 411030 India Off. C.G. Road,
India AHMEDABAD - 380006
Master Tour Organisers India
International Travel House Ltd. 1, Yashdeep Apartments,
T-2, Community Centre, S.No. 696, Maharashinagar, Prasanna Tours Pvt. Ltd.
Sheikh Sarai Phase - I, PUNE - 411037 Sai-Prasad 8/12, Historian Joshi Marg,
NEW DELHI - 110017 India Next to Solaris Gym.
India Nal Stop Off Karve Road,
Mayfair Airtravel Services Pvt. PUNE - 411004
J & S Travels Pvt. Limited Ltd. India
203, New Delhi House, 1st Floor, Mayfair Building, Hazratganj,
27 Barakhamba Road, LUCKNOW - 226001 Prompt Travels
NEW DELHI - 110001 India Cabin 3,4,5 (First Floor),
India New HiTech Chambers,
Narula Travels Pvt Ltd S.C.O.44-45 Madhya Marg, Sector 9-D
Jagsons Travels Private Limited. Mohan Dev Building, CHANDIGARH - 160009
Jagsons Enclave, 13, Tolstoy Marg, India
117-A, Central Avenue, NEW DELHI - 110001
NAGPUR - 440018 India TGS Tours & Travels P Ltd
India Tholia Circle, Mirza Ismail Road,
Nationwide Travels JAIPUR - 302001
Jasbhag Tours & Travels Ganpati House, 4 Way Road, India
Ist Floor, Shop No.15, Madan Mohan Malviya Marg,
Chandpole Bazar, LUCKNOW - 226001
Near Hanumanji Temple, India
Rajasthan
JAIPUR - 302001 Om Air Travel Pvt. Ltd.
India A-1, Sarita Darshan Appts,
Opp. Jai Hind Press,Ashram Road,
Kaleidoscope Travel Consultants AHMEDABAD - 380009
(P) Ltd. India
208-209,’A’ Wing,
Parmar Trade Centre, One World Travels
Sadhu Wasvani Chowk, 16, (1st Floor) Pt. Din Dyal Upadhyay
Pune Camp Complex,
PUNE - 411001 Bhandari Bridge,
India AMRITSAR – 143001,
India
Krisia Holidays & Travels Private
Limited Orient Travels
82 Arcadia,195 10-A, Maqbool Road,
Nariman Point, Opp. Customes House,
MUMBAI – 400021 AMRITSAR - 143001
India India
125
India Tourism Outbound • Nepal Perspective 2010