India Expects 9 lakh South East Asian Tourists This Year

Some 900,000 South East Asian tourists are expected to visit India this year, up by about 15 per cent as compared to last year, boosted by e-Visas and a wide range of marketing campaigns carried out in the region.

"We are expecting 15 per cent increase in South East Asian tourists visiting India this year, especially boosted by the introduction of e-Visa and our promotional campaign across the region," said R K Suman, Assistant Director at India Tourism office in Singapore.

Last year, he estimated there was a 10 per cent on the year increase in South East Asian tourist visitors or over 754,000 to India. This year, some 900,000 tourists from the region are expected to visit India.

Suman promoted India's tourism sector across seven of the 10 countries in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) region last year. He plans to expand the promotional activities and campaigns to Cambodia, Laos and Brunei from this year, completing the entire markets in the grouping.

"We have a wide range of promotional programmes in the ASEAN region, through media and television network, as well as public buses which are especially painted with Indian tourist attractions," he said.

Suman has an elaborate Indian tourist destinations programmes, saying he is bullish on the ASEAN tourists and aims to maintain a strong double-digit annual growth in traffic flow.

Comparatively, India had 8 million tourists last year, up 4.4 per cent on the year.

South East Asian tourist traffic into India has been significantly increasing from 540,910 in 2012, 628,955 in 2013 to 685,805 in 2014.

Suman said he would continue with the tourist promotion programme this year, through special seminars, forums, and networking sessions as well as participation in travel, tour and hospitality exhibitions held annual in the region's major cities.

Media blitz is through the region's leading newspapers, television channels, electronic and social mediums, Facebook, bill-boards across shopping malls and public places as well as bus wraps, or painting of buses in popular Indian destinations in ASEAN cities, he added.

(PTI)