INBOUND ARRIVALS TO SEE 10% GROWTH THIS SUMMER

Despite India is yet to establish as a favourite destination during the summer season in overseas markets, initial booking trends show that inbound arrival this season is set to see a growth. (L – R): Madhu Nair, director- Interior Design and Operations, The Leela; Vivek Nair, VCMD, The Leela, Deepak Parekh, chairman, HDFC; Praful Patel, Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises; Rajiv Kaul, president, The Leela; Sheila Dikshit, chief minister of Delhi; Subodh Kant Sahai, Union Tourism Minister; Capt CPK Nair, chairman, The Leela; Veerappa Moily, Union Minister of Law and Justice and Salman Khurshid, Union Minister of Water Resources at the inauguration of the Leela Palace New Delhi . Inbound arrival in the ongoing summer season is definitely going to be better than the last summer season. “This is despite the fact that our traditional summer source markets like Spain and Italy is still weak due to the recession. However, we expect a 10 percent growth in inbound arrival this summer,” Rajeev Kohli, Joint Managing Director, Creative Travel, said. His growth projection is based on the fact that all non-traditional source markets are doing better than the last season. “Inbound arrival from UK is definitely looking up this season,” he added. Ashwini Kakkar, Executive Vice Chairman, also feels the same. “Summer season has always been lean season in India. However, we can expect 5-7 percent growth in foreign tourist arrivals this season due to the ‘Incredible India’ campaign which is now trying to promote India as a 365-destination,” he added. According to him, India is yet to draw inbound traffic during summer. “Charter arrivals to Goa have stopped and we also do not see group and individual travelers’ movement due to heat,” he added. However, the forecast for the overall 2011 looks quite bright. “Summer is basically season for outbound travel from India and we do not expect much happening on inbound front. However, overall inbound arrival for 2011 will definitely witness at least 17-20 percent growth,” Subhash Goyal, chairman, STIC Travel Group, said. Kakkar and Kohli also feel that 2011 will be a very good year for inbound tourism in India. ‘We expect much larger business in winter this year,” Kakkar said. According to him, US and European market will drive the inbound numbers this year. Goyla, however, says that the mergence of new market like Philippines will also contribute the numbers.” We are also going to enhance in air connectivity between India and Sri Lanka. So, we can see increased arrivals from Sri Lankan market,” he added. Experts in the trade feel that Indian has not been able to promote hill stations in Himachal Pradesh, North Eastern states and other parts of the country to woo foreign tourists during the summer. “Foreign tourists still go to Rajasthan, Kerala and Goa during the summer season,” Kohli added.