Glittering launch to Indian tourism campaign in France

The new marketing campaign of Indian tourism has just seen a dream opening in the French market at a glittering ceremony Paris.

The new marketing campaign of Indian tourism has just seen a dream opening in the French market at a glittering ceremony Paris.

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Indian Minister of State for Tourism Renuka Chowdhury's excellent speaking talents, combined with a slick presentation by Joint Secretary (Tourism) Amitabh Kant on India as a tourism destination, held the audience in a sway throughout the event that lasted over four hours Tuesday evening.

Organised at the Marriott Hotel on Champs Elysees, one of the most prestigious addresses in Paris, it was attended by over 100 people - a mix of leading French tour operators, media persons and other personalities.

At the event, which marked the launch of the new campaign, Chowdhury highlighted the measures being taken by the Indian government to promote tourism as well as tourism-related investments in the country.

Chowhdury said her ministry had launched several key initiatives like rural tourism, medical tourism and spiritual tourism.

"We want to make India a place where people come to taste life as it is. To de-stress and detoxify their bodies and cleanse their minds as well," she said.

"You cannot see India like you see any other country. You have to touch, feel, smell, taste India. It is an experience and not just a visit," said Chowdhury, drawing a warm round of applause at the packed meeting.

In his presentation, which was admired by the French tour operators as one of the slickest campaigns, Kant said India was a land of opportunity for tourists and investors in the tourism industry alike.

"India is one destination in the world that has so much of diversity and variety. This is a journey for the mind and soul. Unlike other destinations that position themselves as beach, mountains or eco tourism-oriented, India has all of that and much more.

"So our positioning is that India is much more than what a tourist can find elsewhere in the world," he said.

Kant also showed glimpses of the new campaign that is being unleashed all over the world. The theme of the new campaign is India and its vibrant colours.

"We are combining our extremely rich traditional heritage with the colours that you find all over India. We are showing the country, its monuments, its people and its colours," says Kant.

A total of six ads for print, television and Internet have been prepared and these will be aired over the next few months as the campaign will continue through March 2005.

Kant told the audience, which also included many potential and actual investors like Accor Hotels, that riding on the back of a rapidly growing economy, the tourism industry was recording historic growth levels in India.

"Our inbound tourism is growing at nearly 30 percent in volume terms this year, while the growth in value terms is over 43 percent so far this year," he said.

Kant later said he expected the growth for the current fiscal to be around 50 percent in value terms.

"We want the growth to come from high value tourism. We are consistently moving up the value chain and we are attracting more and more customers that are spending more money in India," Kant said.

"This will definitely be very exciting for those who want to invest in tourism infrastructure in India - be it hotels or other such facilities."

The presentation was appreciated by almost everyone present. At the end of the presentation, most tour operators queued up to meet and congratulate Chowdhury and Kant on their presentations.

"This is by far the best presentation that I have seen on India and its various facets as a tourism destination," remarked one of the leading tour operators.

Another travel professional, Didier Sandman, who runs La Route des Indes, a tour operator selling customised tours to French tourists visiting India, said India needed to organise more aggressive marketing events like this in order to change the image in France and attract more French tourists to the new destinations being developed there.