DRMumbai: German Tourism will be highlighting the culinary side of the destination as a theme to promote itself in overseas markets this year. As part of the thematic promotions, German National Tourist Office in India will undertake various consumer engagement activities with influencers and bloggers in the market in the coming months.
Announcing the new theme for 2018, #EnjoyGermanFood: Culinary Germany, in Delhi this week, Romit Theophilus, Director for India, German National Tourist Office (GNTO), said: “We will be launching a game of matching German and Indian cuisines on Facebook as well as cookery events for food influencers/bloggers.”
GNTO is also planning to fly in celebrity German chef to India or do food events with German chefs settled in India to create buzz about the theme and Germany’s vast treasure of food, wines, cheese, etc. “Hundreds of food events will be lined up across cities of Germany throughout the year to help visitors experience myriad culinary delights of the destination.”
On the culinary offerings, he said, “Germany produces over 300 different varieties of breads, 1500 different types of sausages, has 13 wine regions producing 140 different varieties of wines and 13,000 breweries producing 5,000 different types of beers.”
On engaging the travel partners in the promotions, Theophilus said, “Culinary tours are already part of the packages offered by many leading tour operators. The travel trade will get to discuss the culinary destinations and the ways to package them with German DMCs at the forthcoming German Travel Mart (GTM).”
“There has been over 13 per cent growth in Indian overnights in Germany last year compared to 2016, and expects 5 to 8 per cent growth in the current year. Our target is to reach one million overnights by 2020, and 2 million by 2030.” Germany, which recorded over 8.5 lakh overnights from India in 2017, is the second highest visited destination by Indians in Europe after Britain, and first among the Schengen countries.
