Tourism ministry plans initiate a slew of measures including a Rs 50-60 crore Budget for marketing tourism overseas, setting up new overseas offices and roadshows, in a a bid to dilute the adverse impact of travel warnings on country’s tourism industry and reassure foreign tourists of a safe destination.At the conclusion of a two-day Overseas Marketing Meet in the Capital, the Union Tourism Minister Jagmohan said “the meet has concluded on a positive note and during the meet we have finalised a detailed corporate marketing plan for 2003-04 for marketing Indian tourism.”He said, during the meet, senior officials, travel and trade members, a corporate marketing plan was prepared and discussed to focus on the various segments of the tourist market and also to capitalise on market trends as prevailing today to the advantage of the country.He said that Rs 50-60 crore will be spent on marketing India as a safe tourist destination and new offices will be opened soon including one in Malaysia and China. He said four road shows in primary markets were being planned in the next few months apart from launching a centralised electronic media campaign in major markets.Government had also worked out a plan of action to boost tourist traffic to the country through various means such as re-assurance campaigns, travel trade briefings, advertising and other marketing and promotional tools. The meet formulated strategies to salvage the prevailing tourism situation in the remainder of 2002-03. Speaking on the occasion, director general (tourism) V K Duggal said the foreign tourist arrivals to the country had dropped by around 14 per cent in the last one year.
