The Cynosure Of All Eyes

Sheldon Santwan

After a much-endured interlude, India's tourism industry is now witnessing a terrific upsurge in both the outbound and inbound segment, which is evident from the elated responses garnered from industry professionals. Although Indian tourism is now enjoying the spotlight, the ongoing elections hold the key to the future growth or stunting, of this immense employment generating industry. After years of taking the backseat in the government's plans, tourism finally found a niche for itself in the reigning government's agenda. That being said, the industry is pinning its hopes on the next party to be elected. The challenge will be to not only continue with funding these projects but also to elevate the tourism industry to newer levels and build upon these preset foundations. The industry is now truly 'shining' on account of the efforts of the government and evidence of this is the fact that the world is finally recognising India's latent potential. Now in the forefront, are various countries vying with each other to grab a piece of that scrumptious Indian pie. Opening up of the Indian economy has led to an increase in the spending power of the middle class, which has had a direct effect on the travel scenario. The educated traveller is now fearlessly exploring virgin destinations without second thoughts and seems to have an insatiable hunger for more. Keeping in mind the fact that the quantum of travellers is increasing rapidly, veteran travellers are on the look out for something new, prompting the International Tourism Boards to innovate. Dubai, prominent as a shopper’s haven is one of many such destinations, constantly upgrading its infrastructure and product offerings to lure one and all.

In fact, all roads this month lead to Dubai and its hosted tourism expo, the Arabian Travel Mart (ATM) which pierced the 1,000-exhibitor mark this year. ATM's latest milestone is yet another testament to the growth of tourism worldwide and if the extent of global attention that has been trained on the Indian outbound, is to be believed, ATM and other related travel exhibitions in the region can only boost this interest. The India pavilion at ATM, in fact, has registered one of the most significant increases in size in terms of exhibition space booked over last year, testimony to the fact that the while the global attention remains focussed on the Indian outbound market, the Indian tourism department is equally serious about promoting India as a global destination. It is little wonder then that a slew of international tourism boards have recently entered the country either thorough the representation route or by actually setting up their own operations, some even opting to headquarter their regional office in India. The scenario has changed so drastically over the last half a decade or so that one could actually term this turnaround as a ‘mini-revolution’ of sorts for destination marketing in India. A new dawn for a new market. Competition will definitely hot up in due course but there’s plenty for everyone in this land of plenty!

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