A few decades ago, the biggest number of travellers worldwide used to be Americans. Then came the turn of the Germans and then of the Japanese. Lately, it appears to be the Indians, who now flock to almost every tourist destination in the world. But the discerning among Indian tourists have begun travelling to more exotic places, where the trickle is yet to become a crowd.
Sensing this, even old favourite country destinations have begun trying to create new spots and places for a new crop of tourists to visit. DNA called in a few experts in this business for their views. They included (in alphabetical order) Deepti Bhatnagar, director, Deepti Bhatnagar Productions Pvt Ltd; Michael Maeder, managing director, Switzerland Tourism; Adel El Masry, director, Egyptian Tourism Office; Radka Neumannova, director, Czech Tourist Authority, Czech Tourism and Orna Sagiv, consul general, Consulate General of Israel.
During the ‘conversation’ moderated by RN Bhaskar of DNA, the panelists talked about major changes that are taking place. Given below are excerpts:
DNA: Thanks to growing affluence, many Indians are beginning to seek out new destinations. We would like to know your views.
Neumannova: The Czech Republic Tourist Authority is quite new to the Indian market. It’s been only eight months since we began our activities here. So, probably, my view may not be that correct or appropriate.
My first impression, when I came here, was that India has huge potential thanks to the growing GDP, middle-class group and the potential for growth, in the sense of buying things for consumption.
I see a lot of changes from 2010 till now, especially because our nation [the Czech Republic] is developing a position on the Indian markets. Everything is in process right now. From a consumer’s point of view, new European destinations are positively welcome on the market, especially for a seasoned traveller who has visited Europe and already been to all the must-see destinations — Switzerland, UK, France, etc.
They are looking for something new. Some countries they have never explored. And Eastern European countries are right now the most targeted destinations on the travel map in India.
DNA: How many tourists do you get a year as a country?
Neumannova: Last year we had about 15,000 to 20,000 Indians. We expect that this number is going to grow steadily a few years from now. Overall, we have about 6-6.3 million visitors each year. Considering that we are a country of 10 million people, population-wise, it is quite an extensive number. And I recently learned that the same number comes to India.
Sagiv: I think Israel is rather new and is considered to be an exotic place for the Indian tourist.
Tourists who go to Israel are more sophisticated. I would say the middle and upper-middle class. Of course, people go to Israel on pilgrimage. And this is interesting, because in the beginning we mainly had pilgrims.
Last year, we had about 3.5 million tourists from all over the world in Israel. We are a small country of less than seven million. And we expect the tourist numbers to go to even 4 million next year. That’s more than half of our population!
On the other hand we had about 40,000 Indian tourists last year, which is the largest number from Asia today. To get the perspective right, I would like to add that the same number of tourists, about 35,000 to 45,000 people, come to India from Israel.
There is still potential for the numbers going [from India] to Israel.
I think Israel has a lot to offer the Indian tourist. First of all, we have very vibrant cities. If you go to Tel Aviv, we call it the 24x7 or the ‘non-stop’ city. And there are great clubs and beaches.
We have a lot of historical places. In Israel, every step you take, you can breathe history. Like in Jerusalem and all over the country, you have very well-preserved archaeological sites. So if you go up north, you can see the place where Jesus walked on water or you can go to Bethlehem. Everywhere history exists. But Israel is a very small country. If you go from North to South, it is eight hours. If you go from West to East, in the most narrow place, it is 15 minutes. So you have the Red Sea, the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. If you like beaches there are beautiful ones for you to be at. If you go up North, it is all mountains and greenery, if you go down South, it is a desert. You can have the whole experience in a very small place. It is only a seven-hour direct flight from here [Mumbai].
Another thing that we offer is that there is a lot of good shopping. And I think that it is another thing that the Indian tourist loves to do. We have great markets. Israel is also a centre of lifestyle. You have all the designers — from clothes designers to shoe designers to jewellery designers. Everything is very accessible, either in shopping malls or in small specialty areas. Many visiting Israel are business tourists who come to participate in conferences and they want to be a part of that. People feel safe to come to Israel and we create a lot of opportunity for the business traveller as well. Let it be agriculture, IT, telecommunications, home and security — we have lots of international conferences and we believe that the person who goes to Israel on a business trip will come again later will his family.
Maeder: I want to speak at this point of the difference between Switzerland and the other two countries.
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