The German National Tourist Office (GNTO) India Pool recently organised a roadshow in New Delhi to showcase destinations such as Bavaria, Saxony, Stuttgart, Cologne, Mannheim, Baden-Baden and association of Magic Cities apart from offerings from German hotel chain Maritim and Lufthansa.
“Over the years, the initiative of India Pool has resulted in a greater awareness of destination Germany’s attractions besides providing regular updates to the travel trade and media. We received 230,000 Indian visitors culminating into over 600,000 overnights in 2013. We are optimistic about 2014 and expect the growth rate to be back in double digits. For the period January-May 2014, Germany has witnessed 256,453 visitor overnights from India and we aim to achieve 10-14 per cent growth in Indian visitors in 2014,” Romit Theophilus, Director Sales & Marketing, GNTO India Office said.
He further added that leisure travellers are on the rise from India. Germany aims to receive 1.5 million overnights from by 2020. Germany witnessed around 60 per cent increase in Indian overnights between 2007 and 2013. This number has risen from 377,025 in 2007 to 615,617 in 2013. “Of the total Indian visitors, 20 per cent is leisure, 20 per cent is MICE and remaining is business travelers. Initially, the percentage of leisure was about 2-3 per cent,” he said.
GNTO India Office is also looking at tapping the education segment. “We are getting very good response from the education segment in South India and are connecting South Indian tour operators and German universities,” he added.
GNTO will also focus on niche segments such as Festival Tourism, Culinary Tourism, self-drive holidays, and Wine Tourism, informed Theophilus.
Replying to a question about the new initiatives taken by GNTO India Office, he said that they are going to launch an aggressive online marketing campaign including social media. He further added that Indians on an average spend around EUR 2,400 a week during their stay in Germany, and are among the highest spenders.
“There are around 1600 Indian restaurants in Germany. This has had a huge impact on attracting tourists from India, many of whom have vegetarian food preferences,” he added.
GNTO India will also organise roadshows in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kochi in 2014.
