Repackaging India

The New Age Offerings Are Here

Express Travel & Tourism brings its readers a global view on tourism trends that have made it in the international arena and offer the Indian perspective

The Indian tourism market has started coming of age only recently. India has become proactive and pulled up its socks as far as domestic and inbound tourism is concerned. The country has discovered that opportunities abound in traditional tourism-related areas and in novel exciting fields, therefore, the tourism sector has entered the new track with fresh dimensions. Placing the growth of tourism in an analytical framework, we can say that exploration, being the zeal of people today in every nook and corner of the world is bound to be focused every day through the medium of tourism.

Some of the qualitative development trends in Indian tourism that have been noticed are developing sustainable tourism increased market segmentation, development of new forms of tourism, especially those related to nature, wildlife, rural areas, culture, sustainable tourism, eliminating poverty and much more.

With a fresh impetus, India is now heading towards promoting innovative products both internationally and domestically. Eco-tourism, adventure and sports tourism, pilgrim tourism, rural tourism, heritage and culture tourism, highway tourism, wine tourism are some of the products on the menu.

Various state tourism boards along with the private sector consisting of travel agents, tour operators, hotel companies and other accommodation providers are all eyeing these products as segments with tremendous potential for future growth. Niche travel markets, which many Indian travel companies are already beginning to tap, include family, adventure, spiritual and golf enthusiasts. In the face of stiff competition, especially from South East Asian countries, it is imperative to sell India as a composite whole.

Take for example, the Indian wine market, mainly in certain cities, is growing by leaps and bounds. In an attempt to put India on the world wine map and position it as a new world wine destination, some of the state tourism bodies are promoting their respective regions as a wine tourism hubs. To name a few, Karnataka and Maharashtra are looking at restoring the wines of India to the tables of the sub-continent with plans to produce enough quality wine to enter the international market.

On the other hand, as a distinctive segment, religious tourism has been gaining a lot of ground in India. Holidays were once purely recreational but in the last 10 years have moved into physical and mental rejuvenation.

Similarly, the potential of adventure tourism in the country has not been fully exploited. However, a few states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Ladakh district in Jammu and Kashmir and to some extent Karnataka, are positioning and promoting themselves as adventure tourism destinations.

Let's take a glance at how concepts like Golf, Spa, Wine, Adventure and Spiritual tourism are gradually gaining ground in India.