India has witnessed a steady and encouraging increase in arrivals for the past five years and this has encouraged German National Tourist office (GNTO) to promote the destination more vigorously in India. Commenting on India as a outbound market, Romit Theophilus, Director – Marketing and Sales, GNTO, India stated, “India along with China are today among the fastest growing economies with a dynamic business environment. Moreover, India has the fastest growth in terms of number of millionaire added every year. Any country ignoring the Indian market is definitely at a disadvantage.”
GNTO strongly believes in the India growth story and is looking at a significant market share out of this potential 50 million outbound travellers coming out of India by 2020. Our growth in terms of Indian arrivals over the past five years has been consistently good. “Our 2012 figures stood at 584,508 overnights which was about 6 per cent higher than 2011. India is one of the most important source markets for Germany. Currently, Germany ranks No. 2 in terms of visitor arrivals to Europe from India,” said Theophilus adding that their Jan – April 2013 Indian visitor arrival figures recorded 174,128 overnights which is an increase from the 172,746 overnights recorded during the same period last year. “The ratio of leisure v/s business tourist is about 40 : 60.”
Talking about their 2013 promotional strategy, Theophilus revealed, “Our promotional budget for 2013 is half a million Euros. Our theme for 2013 ‘Germany for Young People’ is promoting youth hotspots in all German cities and towns. We have already conducted six India Pool roadshows in 2012 in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh and two India Pool roadshows happened in Delhi, Chennai in the month of February 2013. We will continue to organise activities for the travel trade to promote our new theme and new tourist attractions in Germany.” GNTO has always been working closely with the travel trade and believe that it is the most important aspect of their promotional activities. “We conduct regular workshops for trade to update them on the product and make office calls to agents to get feedback and suggestions. Regular study tours for agents enable the trade to have a destination experience to sell better. Joint promotions with prominent agents is also part of our marketing plan for the trade.”
Elaborating more on the new tourism products, Theophilus said the German fairytale route which follows the life and tales of the bother’s Grimm, the Garmisch Partenkirchen with the Bavarian Berchtesgaden National Park and Europa Park will be promoted.
Despite the rupee depreciation and rising airfares impacting outbound travel from India, Theophilus believes Germany has an advantage over other destinations in Europe as it’s a value for money proposition.
