The boom region

India is in the race to catch up with international players in the tourism arena, says Bernd Kubisch

India's tourism, aided not least by the country's sustained economic upsurge, continues to signal double-digit growth rates. In 2006, the Golden Triangle with the Taj Mahal, the beaches of Goa, the backwaters of Kerala, the temples of Mahabalipuram and the subcontinent's other attractions lured more visitors than ever before.

What is making fewer headlines, although many other countries are feeling the benefit, is that the Indians are themselves travelling increasingly and spending more and more abroad. Many may be surprised to learn that already in 2005 roughly the same number of Indians visited Germany as Germans did the sub-continent - a good 1,30,000 people.

After hefty growth rates last year, the signs for inbound and outbound tourism point to continued growth in 2007. According to Bernhard Steinrucke, director general of the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, India's international economic importance and importance for tourism continues to increase substantially. "The country is one of the world's most interesting boom regions," he said.

Flourishing tourism with 4.4 mn guests

India's economy is growing year-on-year at between eight to ten per cent, and foreign investments are rising. In 2006, foreign trade with Germany reached 10 billion Euro for the first time, according to the Chamber of Commerce in Mumbai.

Steinrucke lists India's advantages: a well educated middle class and many ambitious young people, particularly in the high-tech sector. These are now represented throughout the world in high positions. "Without the Indians" says the economics expert, "Silicon Valley would have to close down."

When the economy is booming, tourism also grows, says Ashok Kumar Mishra, secretary at the ministry of tourism in India. But he believes that the country's advertising campaigns, too, are playing their part, as are many public and private initiatives. According to a forecast by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), over the next 10 years Indian will be among the fastest growing countries in the world, with an annual growth rate of 8.6 per cent. "Our current growth rates in tourism exceed this," says Mishra. Tourism, in the ministry's view, has also benefited particularly from the liberalisation of aviation and easing of regulations on foreign investment. In 2006, 4.4 million guests from around the world visited the subcontinent, an increase of 13 per cent, according to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). Giriraj Singh Kushwaha, Europe director of Indiatourism in Frankfurt, reported that the number of guests arriving from Germany last year climbed from 1,30,000 to an estimated 1,40,000, and he is optimistic that this upward trend will continue in 2007.

Successful rivals are waiting

Whatever the jubilation at this growth, one of the reasons why tourism is booming now is the country's failure in the past to advertise its attractions abroad. For a long time the tourism industry was like Sleeping Beauty, waiting to awaken from a long sleep. The focus was on developing the agricultural sector and industry. Holidaymakers who visited Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Orissa 20 years ago, for example could scarcely believe how few foreign guests they encountered in this fascinating country.

India's tourism figures have not yet put it among the leaders in Asia. The competition is not lying dormant and a number of rivals are already enjoying great success. India is currently recording only about a third of the number of foreign visitors that Thailand receives and has fewer visitors than South Korea (Republic of Korea). Differentials in value added and income between India and the Republic of China or Japan continue to be very large. According to UNWTO, the People's Republic of China leads the field in Asia with just under 50 million arrivals in 2006.

International recognition for Incredible India

According to the World Tourism Barometer published by UNWTO in Madrid in February, the Incredible India campaign has contributed to the steady rise in the country's profile and has had a positive effect on stimulating demand. It lists improved tourism products, the expansion of aviation and the many new low-cost carriers as other reasons for success. According to UNWTO, spending by tourists in India rose from US$ 6,170 billion in 2004 to US$ 7,478 billion in 2005. There was a 19 per cent increase up to September 2006.

Expansion of hotel and airport capacity

High growth rates alone are not everything. India's tourism minister, Ambika Soni, is anxious to avoid frantic growth to ensure that the infrastructure including the transport system and hotels can keep pace with demand. Kerala is a case in point. The efforts of the regional tourism authority to showcase the state on the Arabian Sea around the world as a must-see destination continue to be successful.

But initially the number of guests grew faster than the number of hotel rooms. In some places there were not enough rooms to cope with demand. Two years ago the regional press reported that marketing successes could create problematic situations. Currently the number of midrange and luxury class hotel rooms in Kerala is increasing by 15 per cent a year, according to Jose Dominic, president of the Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) Society. Anyone landing at Thiruvanathapuram International Airport a few months ago could see that the airport was operating at full capacity. Today, expansion of hotels and roads is progressing with airport privatisation speeded up.

Training for taxi drivers, travel guides

According to the motto of its campaign, which in Sanskrit reads 'Atithi Devo Bhava' - guest is god, the tourism ministry in New Delhi wants workers in the sector to treat customers better than kings. Over 26,000 taxi drivers, travel guides and restaurant managers are being specially trained in hospitality, with the first phase of the training being staged in cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and Goa. Over six per cent of India's workforce now works in the tourism industry. The government is also supporting the creation of jobs in rural tourism through local crafts, traditional folklore and culture. It is hoped that by 2010 a total of 25 million new jobs will have been created in tourism, according to a report by the eTurboNews media service in New Delhi.

Indians are coming

With a population of over 1.1 billion people and GDP growth of over eight per cent per year, India, as Nancy Cockerell, The Travel Business Partnership's editorial director told a PATA workshop in Hong Kong in September 2006, offers enormous potential for future growth of outbound travel. By as early as 2008 it is likely that Indians will be spending more than four billion US dollars on foreign travel. The country's middle class is an estimated 300 million. And, said Cockerell, these people are beginning to demand higher quality when they travel. Steinrucke says, "For Germany, too, the country is becoming an increasingly important source market". According to figures from DZT, the German National Tourist Board, some 1,31,000 Indians made business trips to or visited friends and family in Germany in 2005, making Germany the second most important market in Europe after Great Britain (272,000 arrivals). DZT figures indicate that they stayed an average of 11 nights and spent 121 Euros per day.

Growth of air travel

The Indian air travel market is defined by growing competition and more low-cost carriers as well as mergers of airlines. At the same time international airlines are considerably expanding their routes. The national carriers, Air India and Indian, which are to merge, offer lower prices, for example, to Great Britain and Thailand. In each case it is the customer who benefits.

Airports, airlines and fleets have been considerably enlarged and modernised, Robert J Aaronson, director general of Airports Council International (ACI), said. The fleet of airlines, he reported, currently numbers 270 aircraft; 480 are to be delivered and brought into service within the next seven years. Aaronson also quoted an example of this breakneck growth: in August 2004 there were 34 non-stop services between India and Great Britain each week. Two years later, in August 2006, the figure had risen to 121.

Air traffic between Germany and India is also experiencing tremendous growth. The number of Lufthansa flights almost tripled between 2000 and 2007. Spokesman Boris Ogurksy says, "We now have 45 non-stop flights from Frankfurt and Munich to India a week, more flights between Europe and India than any other carrier." The German airline now flies to six destinations: Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.

"Lufthansa has plans for further expansion in India", says Ogursky. "The market has a lot of potential. Since 2004 Lufthansa and Air India have offered customers 402 flights a week under a codeshare arrangement." Lufthansa, he reports, regard the merger of Air India and Indian positively since it will strengthen their position in the Indian market. Sri Lankan Airlines, too, is looking to increase its services to its neighbour in the course of the year to over 100 flights a week, according to Nicky Samarasinghe, its director for Germany and Italy. The airline currently serves 10 destinations in India. It hopes that new destinations in the schedule such as Goa will encourage travellers from Germany to fly to India via Colombo.

The wealthy and pensioners are coming

The first hippies arrived in India's smallest state on the Arabian Sea in the sixties, the first German package tourists in the eighties. Since then countless Bollywood stars have been building luxury villas in Goa. Today Condor planes are also full of pensioners who spend a few winter months there to take advantage of the agreeable climate and favourable prices. "Since Condor is the only airline in Europe to offer non-stop flights to Goa, the demand from international guests too is very high," says spokeswoman, Nina Dumbert. The company flies there twice a week. "Tourism has become the most important branch of our economy," says Goa's deputy tourism director, Pamela Maria Mascarenhas.

Further north in the state of Maharashtra with its metropolis Mumbai and the centre of the Bollywood film industry, things are more businesslike and brisk. Bhushan Gagrani, managing director of Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, is seeking to ensure that visitors to the big city and business guests get to know the attractions of the surrounding area. "Today there is better co-operation between state bodies and the private sector. We are working well together. In some places there is a shortage of new hotels," says the director, who wants to further open up the 720-kilometre coastline and 400 or so historic forts to tourism.

Luxury hotels in demand

Luxury tours are much in demand today, including round trips in the north and in the Himalayas with night stops in palace hotels, as well as exclusive trips by boat through the backwaters of Kerala, complete with cook and butler. In the Golden Triangle comprising the cities of New Delhi, Jaipur and Agra, demand has led to a shortage of good quality rooms.

German operators are also reporting that prices are rising. As of now, India has some 1,00,000 tourist class hotel rooms. To cover growing demand and to have a share of lucrative business, international hotel chains and brands such as Accor, Ibis, Regent, Radisson, Marriott and Shangri-La are planning new and additional investments. Homegrown companies too, like Oberoi and Taj Hotels, are expanding. "Competition is revitalising business and doing India good. We are very pleased with how well we are doing," says Gev Patel, director of sales at Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces. The company, which is part of the Tata Group, has 73 hotels, 56 of them in India, and wants to expand further.

Something for everyone

India's strength is that there is something to suit every taste and every pocket. Even the ayurveda movement has long since embraced exclusivity. At Kalari Kovilakom in Kerala, for example, a maximum of 18 guests seeking purity and harmony for nature, body and soul are looked after by some 50 staff members.

In the former maharajah's palace traditional ayurvedic healing therapies are offered as they have been for centuries. Dr Jouhar Kanhirala, a doctor at the centre, reports that German tourists in particular are interested in authentic treatments both there and in India in general. One day at Kalari Kovilakom can cost up to US$ 400.

Ginger Hotels, part of the Taj Group, is a new chain established for businesspeople and cost-conscious travellers which offers rooms from as little US$ 25. In Periyar Park in Kerala, home to tigers and elephants, many families offer home-stays, benefiting from a tax exemption if they rent out fewer than six rooms. "This brings us all extra income," says Sujatha Murali who offers five rooms in her Mickey's Cottage at prices starting at US$ 10.

Quicker visas

If it were not for the fact that most of India's source markets are subject to a visa requirement, tourism growth rates might look quite different. "The average tourist spends around US$ 2,000 in India," says R Parthiban, director of Swagatham Tours & Travel. Tourists canceling their trip because of visa problems, he says, mean financial losses for travel agents, incoming operators and the Indian economy. Tourism minister, Ambika Soni, wants to ensure that tourists do not have to wait longer than 36-48 hours for their visa. She also told Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) 2006 that multiple visas would be issued to promote travel to India.

German operators are positive

TUI reinstated India in its winter programme two years ago. "Currently bookings are still lagging behind our expectations, but we can certainly see potential in this multi-faceted country," reports spokesperson, Alexa Huner. Air tours product manager, Jordis Scherer, reports that luxury hotels in the north as well as the new wellness hotels and luxury safari lodges are particularly popular.

Meanwhile, Gebeco claims an upward trend in bookings for India trips and expects this to continue in 2007. Less well-known regions are to be added to the programme to tempt returning guests. One of the areas India is focusing on is religious and health tourism. "There is still a lot of potential for trips to famous sacred places in our country, as well as stays including affordable treatments and operations in international standard clinics," says Dr Singh Sikand, tourism advisor and lecturer in religious tourism at the Universities of Frankfurt am Main and Mainz.

Source: dpa - The German Press Agency