Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) has written to PM Narendra Modi , thanking him for extolling NRI’s residing in Denmark during his speech there to contribute and help promote Inbound tourism to India and thus contribute to the economic development of the country. However, it also urges the government to raise the level of promotion for attracting inbound tourists.
“Just as India has opened up, so have countries in our neighbourhood. There is stiff competition coming from countries like Thailand, UAE and even Nepal. One of the factors playing in their favour is the huge amount of marketing and promotional activities they are doing to attract foreign tourists,” says Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO.
According to him, “Our marketing is not commensurate with our size and stature and we need to step up on roadshows, organising Incredible India evenings, and increase participation in international travel marts, organise Fam tour for foreign tour operators. This we understand is because of paucity of funds with the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. We also understand that the fund to the Ministry of Tourism is withheld for reasons not known to us.”
He further says that, it will be pertinent to point out that every penny spent has a potential of return of 10x however most unfortunately the allocation for promotion has been cut in this year’s budget.
IATO implores the government to revisit the allocation and raise the marketing level as after two years of pandemic the world wishes to travel and India must try and reach out to maximum people to visit our country.
IATO requests the Hon’ble Prime Minister to issue necessary directives to the Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India to undertake promotional and marketing activities for which funds may kindly be released.
