The Union Tourism Minister Kumari Selja has said that it was heartening to note that in spite of several bottlenecks faced by the global tourism industry and India the tourism, arrivals into India is showing a growth trend. During Dec 2009 the Foreign Tourist arrivals in India saw an 21 per cent increase over the same period in 2008. The future looks bright and we expect the buoyancy to return in the sector she added. According to the Minister the recently introduced ‘Visa on Arrival’ scheme for five countries namely Singapore, Finland, New Zealand, Luxemburg and Japan will give a tremendous boost to inbound tourism as it has sent positive signals to the source markets. She added. At the same time the Ministry of Tourism (MoT) is likely to waive off 50 per cent of the Visa fee charged from visitors of Commonwealth nations as an incentive to boost declining number of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs). This is part of its effort to incentivise tourism to India for the Commonwealth Games to be held in October this year. According to the minister one of the biggest marketing successes has been the “Incredible India” campaign. This campaign is now eight years old and continues to be the mantra for attracting foreign visitors. The creative ideas used in the campaign have been very popular and won several accolades globally. The State governments have also been in successful in building sub brands but the sub brands can be leveraged effectively if used along with the Mother Brand “Incredible India”. Kumari Selja urged upon the states to use this mother brand while marketing world wide for larger impact.
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