Reviving tourism the British way

There continues to be a pessimism surrounding the Indian travel industry with prospects for the last quarter of 2002 not looking heartening. A year of earthquakes, falling stocks, threat of war and September 11 is now behind us. In a way, India shares a lot with UK as just a year ago, holidaymakers crossed Britain off their travel plans, put off by images of animal pyres ablaze on once-tranquil green pastures. Even as Indian travel continues to sniffle, there are already clear signs that business in Britain is picking up. Significant initiatives from a wide range of bodies and commercial interests is helping to rebuild traveller confidence worldwide. In India, however, we continue to stuff the need for improving our badly hurt image under a carpet of excuses and indifference. Rising collectively to the challenges of 2002, the recent British Trade Fair was itself an indication of the industry's determination to fight back as it positioned itself as "a forum for the regeneration of British tourism". New low prices for first-time exhibitors (77 of 450) and a host of other innovations proved a support mechanism for industry action. Hopefully, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) international conference held in Delhi has taken a cue from this. With delegate fees amounting to $550 (reduced from $700), the domestic travel trade, struck by economic woes would find it difficult to attend the conference. Major initiatives, both by tourism marketing bodies and individual commercial concerns promise to maintain a momentum that has been set in UK. Major events such as the Queen's Golden Jubilee and the staging of the commonwealth games will inevitably provide a significant and timely lift for UK's profile around the world. Indeed, these events will form an integral part of the British Tourist Authority's (BTA) massive international marketing campaign starting next month, thanks in part to unprecedented financial support from the government which has pledged to match, pound for pound, up to £20 million raised by the industry. Unlike India that continues to have no focussed marketing policy with its tardy budgets, Britain's £40 million campaign will target visitors from seven key countries using high impact TV advertising, supplemented by an increasing number of special offers from many of the biggest players in tourism. The aim is to win back one million visitors, spending £500 million. In fact, BTA had already started to fight back at the end of January with the launch of the UK OK initiative in its key markets. The TV advertising campaign, which launches in April, will build on the success of UK OK, in the same markets. Already, there is optimism that the sharp decline in tourism may have 'bottomed out'. Figures show visitors are coming back to Britain — according to official estimates foreign visitors in December 2001 rose 26 per cent to 727,000 from November's 576,000. BTA has woven into its strategy the fundamental yet vital components of the importance of information and data research, quality, skills of people in the industry and marketing. All this is supported by a risk management strategy on how to react should the unexpected happen again in future. Has India's tourism even remotely considered this? If not, it is time it does. Not resting on its short-found laurels, BTA chief executive Jeff Hamblin said humbly: "The key lesson is about resilience. In crisis, we need to go back to key customers. It is all about opportunity, not tourism." It's also all about getting rid of narrow-minded parochialism, partnerships between tourism and the private sector and establishing a revitalised brand, one that screams quality. Hopefully our industry will wake up to these facts soon.

Frome : http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com