India to hold roadshow in China to attract more tourists, says KJ Alphons

To attract more tourist from China, neighbours India will hold a roadshow in the country which has the highest number of outbound people, Union Tourism Minister KJ Alphons said on Monday as he announced the scheduled for the first India Tourism Mart.

The Tourism Ministry is aiming to double the number of foreign tourist arrivals and receipts from it in te next three years, the minister said.

Last year was 'extremely well' in tourism, he said. Following a successful roadshow to promote tourism in the US, the ministry is going to hold similar events in Russia and Nordic countries in the next couple of weeks, he told a press conference.

"We are also going to have a big time roadshow in China because it has the biggest tourist outflow. Last year, it had 144 million outbound tourists. India got only 2.5 lakh of that so we are going to make moves so that the numbers go up dramatically," Alphons said.

For the first time, the foreign tourist arrivals in India crossed 10 million mark last year, and 16.5 million in total if NRI visitors and international tourist arrivals (FTA) are taken together, he said.
     
"The growth of foreign tourist arrivals was 15.6 per cent over the previous year. Our receipts from FTA went up by 20.8 per cent."

The first-ever India Tourism Mart (ITM), to be held from September 16 to 18 at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi, is a partnership of the Tourism Ministry and the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH), suppored by state and union territories.

"Through ITM we are trying to get the best buyers in the world and get them meet our sellers including state governments, tour operators, travel agents and other tourism industry stakeholders," the minister said.

Tourism Secretary Rashmi Verma said the Ministry's scheme to provide SIM cards to foreign tourists arriving in the country had been 'discontinued' as it was felt 'unnecessary' now.

The event targets to attract over 300 buyers, influencers, bloggers from all over the world to create a global marketplace for Indian tourism stakeholders including states, hotel, travel and transport segments.