Athul LalLondon: Incredible India’s WTM London 2018 campaign ended on an impressive note with the ‘Festivals of India’-themed pavilion attracting a massive audience at the mega travel show. The Indian delegation was led by Rashmi Verma IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. Vellamandi N Natarajan, Minister for Tourism, Tamil Nadu; Pramod Kumar Singh, Minister for Tourism, Bihar; Navjot Singh Sidhu, Minister for Tourism & Cultural Affairs, Punjab and Kadakampally Surendran, Minister for Tourism, Kerala also attended the event.
Speaking to mediapersons at WTM 2018, Verma said a record 10.4 million foreigners visited India in 2017, up 14 per cent from 2016. “India aims to maintain this growth rate over the next three years with proactive marketing strategies in partnership with tourism stakeholders.” She said the e-visa facility, a “game changer”, is now available to 166 countries and valid for entry through 25 designated airports and five seaports, contributing to the boost in FTAs.
The Ministry of Tourism has formulated an integrated marketing plan including global media campaigns as well as promotional activities undertaken by overseas offices. “The Incredible India 2.0 campaign, launched by the ministry in September 2017 lays more focus on social and digital media,” Verma said, mentioning adventure, yoga and Ayurveda as activities gaining in popularity as well as homestays where tourists can experience the life and culture of Indian families.
Promoting India as a year-round destination to attract more tourists with specific interests and encouraging repeat visits she said, “To ensure the safety and security of international and domestic tourists travelling in India, a special toll-free tourist helpline in 12 languages has been launched, available at all times of day or night on 1800111363 or a short code 1363 for dialling in India.” She also highlighted the certification course on tourism, an online learning management system across India to enable young people, even in remote locations, to prepare themselves to deal with visiting tourists, leading to more jobs.
A shared heritage and culture with ASEAN countries has prompted the Government of India to declare the year 2019 as ASEAN-India year, with a series of promotional activities including food festivals and quiz competitions spread over the entire year.
HIGHEST ATTENDANCE EVER
WTM London 2018 and its co-located sister event Travel Forward experienced a 6 per cent increase in visitors fuelled by a rise in senior travel and tourism industry professionals attending the event, according to unaudited figures. The event saw visitor numbers – including exhibitor invitees, WTM Buyers’ Club members and trade visitors – increase by 6 per cent to 32,700. Overall participant numbers increased to 51,409 – making it one of the highest attended of the 39 WTMs that have taken place in London since it launched in 1980.
Simon Press, Senior Director, WTM London said, “The 2018 edition was overhauled to have a greater regional focus with the introduction of regional Inspiration Zones. The increase in participants shows this strategy was a great success with the increase in content available at the event, further improving ideation around the travel and tourism industry.”
TAKING CHARGE AT WORLD RESPONSIBLE TOURISM DAY 2018
Derek Hanekom, Minister for Tourism, South Africa, in his keynote address for World Responsible Tourism Day 2018 said, “It’s up to all of us to spread the responsible tourism message loudly, far and wide. There are two topics that the industry has to address – climate change and overtourism.
Without massively changed behaviour, the world stands to destroy itself. We are perilously close to the point where carbon emissions will irreversibly change the symbiotic life systems that sustain life. If we don’t do this we will remain on the tragic path of being the architects of our own destruction.” He called on the industry to become change agents, providing the example through our actions that send the right message to guests. “If tourists see responsible practices away from home they are much more likely to adopt them when they get back,” he commented.
On overtourism, he said, “The key issue is host communities feeling excluded by tourists. At the same time, tourists don’t want to be viewed as unwelcome visitors or destroyers of lifestyles and the environment. Responsible Tourism requires that communities are consulted, benefit from tourism and are integrated into tourism development in their neighbourhoods.”
Pointing out the Cape Town water crisis, Derek cited his country’s response as providing a template to prove that it is possible to radically and rapidly transition to more sustainable ways of operating. “Having implemented a host of water saving measures, the city has reduced consumption by more than 50 per cent in just three years. From adversity, the city has become a global leader in best water practice.”
STARTUPS TAKE CENTRE STAGE
TripNinja, Canadian multi-city flight search technology specialists, won the inaugural Startup Pitch competition at Travel Forward. The other three finalists were: 15togo, a group travel application designed for millennials; Fly Now Pay Later, which allows travel brands to offer customers the option to pay in installments and Thimus, an Italian business specialising in travel-specific applications of applied neuroscience and biometric data.
WTM WELLNESS & WELLBEING
Wellness tourism is growing twice as fast as the tourism sector overall, accounting for around 830 million trips a year and is worth an estimated $639 billion, according to figures released at WTM 2018. The report by Global Wellness Institute said tourism expenditure grew 3.2 per cent in the two years to 2017, but wellness tourism was up 6.5 per cent, which was more than global GDP and it’s growing in every region of the world. Europe accounts for the highest number of wellness trips, but spend is highest in North America, which accounts for over a third of the world’s total. Asia is the fastest growing market, due largely to the expanding middle class and explosion of tourism in the region.
The authors of the Global Wellness Tourism Economy report, senior research fellows Ophelia Yeung and Katherine Johnston, said the sector had already generated more than 17 million jobs worldwide. As wellness tourists are generally better educated, well-travelled and willing to try new experiences, they typically spend 53 per cent more than the typical international traveller and 178 per cent more than the average domestic tourist, they said. However, those who aren’t necessarily travelling for wellness but want to maintain their health or take part in wellness activities during their trip typically spend eight times more than those travelling primarily for wellness.
Wellness tourism is defined by the Institute as travel to maintain or improve health, and Yeung warned the travel industry not to conflate this with medical tourism, which is travelling specifically to seek treatment. “There are some grey areas between the two, such as travelling for a medical check-up, but talking about them together can confuse potential customers and that might dilute the appeal of either segment, so we don’t recommend that destinations talk about them together,” she said.
Examples of wellness tourism range from boot camps in the UK to spiritual ceremonies in India to medical check-ups in Malaysia and Thailand. Many travel brands are starting to integrate wellness products, such as Hyatt which has acquired the fitness brand Exhale. Next year, fitness brand Equinox will open a hotel in New York’s new Husdon Yards district, and it has 75 more in the pipeline. Delta Air Lines has also partnered with Equinox to create in-flight exercises and Singapore Airlines has partnered with wellness brand Canyon Ranch to create onboard exercises and healthy menus.
Other collaborations include cruise line Seabourn’s tie-up with Dr Andrew Weil; Holland America with Oprah; MSC with Technogym and Weight Watchers – now rebranded as WW. “These partnerships help people to bring their fitness brands with them when they travel,” said Johnston.
“You are going to be seeing more of these collaborations. Westin was an early mover in adopting wellness products and I predict every hotel is going to start paying attention to wellness because that is what the consumer wants. They might not always use them but they want those options.”
To capture this expanding, lucrative market, some destinations, such as Bhutan in Asia and Costa Rica in Central America have chosen to focus heavily on wellness tourism, while others are creating wellness products, such as in China, where hot springs are adding traditional Chinese medicine treatments. “We believe that wellness tourism can offer relief to destinations that suffer from overcrowding and the problems this brings,” added Johnston. “It has the potential to attract people off-season and take them away from overcrowded destinations to less well-known areas.”
ALL EYES ON LGBT TRAVEL MARKET
The annual value of total spending on travel and tourism by lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) people has now exceeded $218 billion, according to research report LGBT2030 by Out Now. Presenting the report, Ian Johnson, CEO, Out Now said, “India is a market with strong and growing potential. The recent removal of anti-gay laws sees this market demonstrating the strongest annual growth rate in 2018 of more than 7 per cent over the last twelve months.”
The data reaches a research panel comprising over 130,000 participants from 26 countries. “It is important though that travel industry suppliers understand the need to focus past the strong value of the market, to make sure that their products and services are well-tailored to meet the specific needs of this market. That includes training and education for customer-facing staff as a minimum – to make sure the potential of the large LGBT travel spend can be fully realised by individual destinations and hotels.”
WTM London 2019 – the 40th event – will take place at ExCeL London from November 4 to 6. Destination Reporter was one of the magazine partners at WTM 2018.
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL & TOURISM AWARDS
Kerala Tourism made India proud as the State’s Responsible Tourism (RT) initiative won laurels at the first International Travel & Tourism Awards (ITTA), presented by WTM London. Held at Tobacco Dock in London, Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran and Secretary Rani George IAS received the ‘Best in Responsible Tourism’ award in Gold category in front of an audience of more than 500 senior industry professionals. The other Gold winners of ITTAs 2018 are:
- Best National Tourism Board / DMO Campaign – To Visit and to Stay, is to Help! by Turismo do Centro de Portugal
- Best Digital Campaign in Tourism – The 7 islands that became 47 by DEC BBDO on behalf of Canary Islands Tourism
- Best PR Campaign – #StopBlueMonday by DEC BBDO on behalf of Canary Islands Tourism
- Best in Adventure – The Jordan Bike Trail by Experience Jordan
- Best in Luxury – Taylor Morris & Mauritius Luxury campaign by Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority and Hills Balfour
- Best in Wellness – Healthy Waters by Slovenian Tourist Board
- Best Tourism Marketing Agency –MAMMA MIA! The Musical – Tourism Marketing Campaign Jan 2016 – Dec 2017 made by Tourism Marketing on behalf of Littlestar Services
- Best Regional / City Campaign – The Mud Soldier by VisitFlanders
- Most Innovative Use of Technology Within a Destination – Google Trekker South Africa by South African Tourism and Drive South Africa
- Best in LGBT – GLBT History Tour of Denver, USA by GeoTourist and AARP
- Best Food Destination – Northern Ireland – Year of Food and Drink 2016 by FoodNI Ltd.
- Best Digital Influencer in the Industry – Sustainable Tourism Blog by Viajar Verde
WORLD RESPONSIBLE TOURISM AWARDS 2018
- Best for Managing Success – Turisme de Barcelona and Kumarakom, Kerala, India
- Best for Wildlife – World Animal Protection and Fringe Ford Wayanad, Kerala
- Best for Communicating Responsible Tourism – TUI UK & Ireland and Intrepid Group Global
- Best for Employment – Intrepid Group Colombo
- Best for Local Economic Benefit – OneSeed Expeditions USA
Sisa Ntshona, CEO, South African Tourism (SAT) said that they have set a growth target of 9 per cent for the India market in the next three years. “The absence of direct flight connectivity between South Africa and India is an impediment for growth. We are working really hard with various airlines to have a direct flight in place. Recently, British Airways commenced a new direct flight service from London to Durban. Austrian Airlines started flying directly between Vienna and Cape Town while Alitalia introduced a direct flight between Rome and Johannesburg. For the UK market, SAT has set an ambitious growth target of 20 per cent over the next three years. In 2017, we had around 4,45,000 visitors from the UK into South Africa. Of this, 53 per cent of the travellers were repeat visitors. Be it budget or high-end consumers, we want to make sure that a tourism destination is not only sustainable, but generational as well.”
Sally Cope, Regional General Manager, UK/Northern Europe, Tourism Australia said, “The UK is Australia’s fourth largest inbound market and the third largest in tourism spending. In 2017, the number of visitors from the UK stood at around 7,33,000 and the annual yield was worth A$3.5 billion. By August-end 2018, we recorded 2.6 per cent in the number of visitors on the previous year. Of this, 86 per cent are leisure travellers. Latest stats show that the average number of days spent by UK visitors is 22 but it’s radically different for each segment. For instance, a first-time visitor will do a two-week holiday whereas a young traveller who is on a working holiday will stay a year. As for the aviation landscape, choices are plenty and equally competitive. Qantas recently started operating daily direct flights from London to Perth. We have over 1000 flights a week to Australia with one stop. The spotlight now is on premium experiential offerings.”
Peter Unsinn, Manager, International Marketing, Innsbruck Tourism said there will be roadshows in New Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad in February 2019 along with Austria Tourism Office promoting ‘Bollywood Tour’, the new tourism product themed on Indian movie productions in the Innsbruck region, “The tour, accompanied by an English-speaking guide, starts in Innsbruck and takes participants to Praxmar to visit the house which was the setting for the romantic overnight stay of the stars in Tiger Zinda Hai. It includes a visit to the Imperial Palace, a walk through Old Town and along Maria-Theresien-Strasse – all of them important Bollywood locations. There’s also a visit to Swarovski Crystal Worlds. The UK is the eighth most important market. Our goal is to increase the length of stay. Germany is the top source market for Innsbruck while India stands at the tenth position with 60,000 overnights.”
