Tourism Boards Target Bollywood To Boost Outbound Market
By Charmaine Fernz /Mumbai

In what can be termed as a growing ‘trend’, that is catching up with the travel fraternity, tourism boards are now turning to Bollywood to showcase their destinations. This in turn enhances the outbound market, which has been witnessing a downtrend for the past few months, due to varied reasons. On speaking to a number of tourism boards, the responses were quite edifying.

Most countries like Dubai, Singapore, Mauritius etc that have been previously tapped, created the necessary platform. Bollywood provides the ideal link between the Indian consumer and any destination for tourism promotion. According to Carl Vaz, country manager, Dubai representative office in India, Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), Dubai, has been promoted through a number of Indian serials and movies in the past, even regular stage shows. But what sets Dubai apart, is that the city is financially viable since air time to Dubai is just like travelling to any other Indian destination, but once visitors get there its a different feeling all together.

“In terms of tourism promotion, there is no direct effect but it definitely instills a desire to visit the destination,” added Vaz

Elucidating on the already popular Singapore, Leslie Chan, director South Asia, Singapore Tourism Board, said, “We are planning to hold a familiarisation (FAM) trip for the Indian film industry, to give them a real feel of the place. Movies are a definite advantage over advertisement commercial, since it gives the viewers a wider scope of the place, hence enhancing tourism to the country.”

“The film industry is crucial, in gaining consumer awareness about a particular destination and in building a positive profile for the country overseas. We also realise, that promotion through word-of-mouth-plays a big role in tourism overseas and the more people see New Zealand in films, the more they will talk about it as a potential visitor destination,” asserts Neera Arora, office & account manager, New Zealand Trade Development Board.

Viraat Raj Bhalla, country manager-India, Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA), very positively mentions that, Mauritius has a two pronged approach as far as attracting Bollywood is concerned. While the Mauritius tourism body is frequently in touch with the film industry, so are private hoteliers, who wish to have a chunk of the Bollywood pie. MTPA has a good interaction with Bollywood producers and directors, and conducts various seminars on the various locales. The association may also assist and facilitate permissions for shootings etc. in Mauritius. However no discounts are offered by the MTPA on hotel accommodation and transportation to filming crews. Should a hotel wish to offer special rates to the filming body, the discretion is totally theirs.

“Where tourism is concerned, recently cinema has again gained mass attention and films shot in Mauritius are good publicity vehicles. If the film is a hit in the Indian context, the destination surely receives a boost and hence could determine choice for the potential Indian traveller,” asserts Bhalla.

On the contrary, countries like Zurich and Canada, have also shown a keen interest. Maurus Lauber, director tourism, Zurich Tourism, enthusiastically revealed, “At present, we are not very active yet in the Indian film industry, but would be glad to start a project in the future. However, right now we do not have any contacts. With regards to the costs, they are more or less the same in every European city and they depend on the duration of stay, the size of the group and the special needs. Indian visitors would get to see sights and surroundings of the city, which were unexplored..”

In conclusion Doug Paterson, consul & senior trade commissioner, Consulate of Canada, “Canada remains interested in attracting additional film crews for ‘film shoots’. We have also been quite successful in recent years in attracting Indian film crews, particularly to Vancouver and Toronto. Canada ha a wide range of experienced technicians, artists and other experts to assist any Indian film crew. Given that Canada has been able to attract a significant number of film companies from India, it also would seem that the destination is very cost-effective and meet the required criteria.

“Where tourism promotions are concerned, using Canadian locations in Indian films is one component in our overall tourism promotion campaign. But, unless the Indian film-goer pays particular attention to the closing credits, or the completed movie is marketed as having been filmed in Canada, they may not realise that it is Canada, they are looking at.”