The Philippines is identified as one of the major overseas markets. Identifying its growth potential, tourism authorities in India have now planned to build up destination awareness drive through marketing in the South-east Asian nation.
Manila, in conjunction with Jakarta and Hanoi, was the first ASEAN countries chosen for the Incredible India roadshow organized this week. The criteria for selecting these countries were due to their immense inbound growth potential to India, and the common background, heritage, family system and values that they share with India says Gyan Bhushan, financial advisor of India’s Tourism Ministry.
The Ministry of Tourism in India focuses to attract a large number of Filipinos to this country. Bhushan also informed that the Indian tourism ministry concentrates on promoting India by tying-ups with the tour operator and media, and online marketing campaign “Incredible India mobile application”, and a few other product segments that include fitness and wellbeing and celebrations that targets a broad range of travelers.
Till last year, the Indian tourism has greeted around 50,000 Filipinos into the country. Bhushan projects that with this pace, India will target twice this figure in the coming three years from now. Earlier a direct Manila to New Delhi flight was put on hold due to temporary suspension of its launch by Philippine Airlines. This flight would be critical in boosting the exchange of tourism between both the countries, provided that one lac Indian travelers visit the Philippines previous year.
The assistant director of India’s Ministry of Tourism, Mr. Sudeshna Ramkumarnoted that with direct Indigo Air flight from Calcutta to Ho Chi Minh City, and Hanoi, and VietJet flies from New Delhi to these Vietnamese cities from December, the connectivity of both these countries will also enhance from October.
Talking about safety concerns, Ramkumar also said that tourists in major cities of India can talk to customer representatives on the 24-hour hotline “1363” available in twelve different languages to get any information regarding their tour to India. Tourist police have also been deployed in fourteen major states in India to ensure the highest level of security and safety of tourists.
According to the general manager of “The Marvels of Travel”, Imelda Cruz, India is a wonderful tourist destination to all those travelers who have been to Asia before. She also added that in cases of non-availability of a direct flight, travelers can even board flights to India from Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
Cruz said that while they are focusing on marketing Indian tourism, they have started getting queries regarding luxurious tourist trains Palace on Wheels, and Maharaja Express. The team leader of Philippines origin Rakso said that the all-in- tourism packages of India include staying in five-star hotels with commutation in private cars, the overall traveling expense in India is lower than Japan, another famous tourist destination among Filipinos.
Though India’s popular Golden Triangle tour that includes a visit to Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra is one of the favorite tourist attractions among Filipinos, the roadshow provides them information about other tourist attractions like the ones in the northern states of India said, De Ocampo. The clients of a travel agency are mostly FITs and leisure groups with a few MICE, who mostly stay in India for 8 days of relaxation activities or five days when the tour only covers the Golden Triangle.
Manila-based managing director of Shroff International Travel Care, Arjun Shroff said that there is noted a slight rise in the number of Filipino tour operators who are in search of selling their travel packages to India that exceeds other exotic tourist destinations such as Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Myanmar. He continued that the initiative of the Indian Ministry of Tourism to offer flexible electronic visas to more than 160 countries on the basis of tourist footsteps from September or October will surely attract more overseas tourists to India in the coming years.
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