In Brief

Indian Arrivals To Hong Kong Show 33% Growth

A strong performance from India and other long-haul markets helped lift Hong Kong visitor arrivals in February 2004 to 1,454,486, a 3.3 per cent growth on the arrivals figure for 2003, the Hong Kong tourism Board (HKTB) said. Visitor arrivals from India recorded an impressive growth of 31.0 per cent during this month. Other markets in South and south East Asia, however, were unable to match their 2003 figures, with travel around the region being dampened by bird flu concerns.

Taking January and February 2004 together, the long-haul market figures show that Europe, Africa and the Middle East and Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific have almost recovered to pre-SARS levels. HKTB executive director Clara Chong said that now both January and February figures was available, a much clearer picture of progress in the ongoing tourism revival campaign was emerging. “Generally, the picture is an encouraging one, with Mainland growth remaining strong and the long-haul markets clearly on a positive comeback trend. However, we still face challenges towards restoring some of the other Asian markets to pre-SARS levels, especially Japan. We will be launching a special booster campaign in Japan in the coming weeks, and will continue our strenuous promotional efforts in all the other key markets worldwide,” said Chong.

Spain Woos Agents To Increase Arrivals

Spain might be one of the top five destinations in the world that receive the highest number of tourists, but when it comes to India, only about 7,000 Indians visit the country. On the flip side, over 25,000 Spanish tourists come to India annually. In lieu of the scenario, the Spain Tourism Board has decided to correct the imbalance by partnering with the travel trade.

According to Miguel Nieto-Sandoval, director, SE Asia, Australia, New Zealand and India, Spain Tourism Board, “As, we have noticed the imbalance of tourist flow to Spain and vice versa, we have taken a conscious decision to focus on travel agents in order to tap the desired Indian market share.” Spain has identified certain agents in India to promote the destination aggressively to the Indian customers. The agents will provide tailor-made packages to travellers. “Spain has the advantage of being a year-round destination and it will be the highlight of the packages,” he added. To woo the agent fraternity, the National Tourist Office of Spain and its Embassy in India, in association with KLM, ITC Maurya Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Torres Wines and Taj Mahal Saffron recently organised a 10-day Spanish Fiesta showcasing the many aspects of the destination. Such events will be part of its promotional exercise.

Although no targets have been set, the Spain Tourism Board hopes to double the current arrival figure from India. “We will focus on metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore and lay special emphasis on Gujarat as most of the Indian traveller to Spain are from Gujarat. Notably, one per cent of Spain's population comprises of the Sindhi community. So, they will also be targeted,” said Nieto-Sandoval. However, the major bottleneck of promoting Spain is that there is no direct flight, although KLM, Lufthansa and others provide excellent connections to the country.