Consolidating Brand India At ITB

Rabindra Seth - New Delhi

The International Tourism Bourse, better known as ITB Berlin is the travel world's greatest show on earth. Every year in March this historic German City attracts several thousand industry leaders from more than a 100 countries eager to increase their share of the tourism boom. This year the dates are March 11-16, 2004. An upbeat India, with a 15 per cent increase in arrivals and a hefty 23 per cent rise in foreign exchange earnings in 2003, and keen to ensure that its growth momentum is kept up, will attempt to make its presence felt. More than a 100 destination management specialists, hoteliers, national carriers and tourism functionaries will be operating out of the Indian pavilion in the Asian section of ITB, while a score will have separate individual booths. But for the general elections, minister Jagmohan would have led the Indian contingent. In his absence, secretary Rathi Vinay Jha would be the head, assisted by joint secretary and chairman, ITDC, Amitabh Kant, and additional director general, Rashmi Verma. The regional director, India tourist office, Frankfurt and heads of other overseas offices will also be there to give a helping hand.

Rashmi Verma told Express Travel & Tourism that this year's theme for the India Pavilion is 'Faces of India' showcasing the country's unity in diversity. Significantly, she said, the stirrings among the states about the realisation that tourism is a powerful instrument of economic development, will be reflected in the fact that a dozen of them - virtually half of the country - will be represented in Berlin. All four southern states - Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh - which have cornered a bigger share of international flow into the country, will be promoting the new destinations that are becoming popular as well as the new infrastructure in terms of hotels and airports. Among the northern states, Rajasthan, UP and the newly created Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh, along with Jammu & Kashmir will be presenting their attractions. Assam from the North-east and the union territory of Delhi will bring up the rear.

And, to bring into focus the vast potential that India offers in the MICE segment, ITB will witness the release of India 2004 MICE Q1, a quarterly follow up to the successful launch of India 2004 Worldroom MICE Guide at WTM in November last year. It is a publication of Worldroom India, a subsidiary of the London-based company, which operates the international travel portal www.worldroom.com. Q1 promotes states in northern India, their immense potential as ideal destinations for incentive travel and pilgrim tourism in addition to being ideal venues for business meetings. There is a special section on Jammu & Kashmir with its endless natural beauty, being promoted as an upcoming MICE destination. This is the first time that such an invaluable data has been compiled to target industry professionals in specific countries that comprise the most important potential MICE source markets for each destination in India.

Another segment that the Indian promoters will project at ITB is rail travel by steam engines for which there is a fast growing demand in the west particularly in Europe. According to one estimate the UK earns as much as 60 million pounds from steam trains. Ashwani Lohani, former chairman and MD of ITDC, and founder member of the Indian Steam Railway Society told this writer that 15 or 20 fixed steam services had the potential of attracting 100,000 visitors from abroad. For starters, he said, the first regular steam train between Delhi Cantt and Farrukh Nagar will be launched in April and possibly a little later, a second one from Udaipur to Chittorgarh. Among other proposals the Steam Railway Society is working on is to convert to steam the Palace On Wheels along its 75-km run from Delhi to Rewari. It is also planned to convert all the five hill railways to steam.

Hopefully, the Indian contingent will return with a bag full or orders.