Last year, an estimated 47.6 million Chinese travelled overseas, spending in excess of $42 billion. Of them, only around 102,000, or a tiny 0.21 per cent, decided to splash their Yuan in Indian markets — a far smaller share than either South Korea or even Vietnam.
The reluctance of Chinese travellers to seek out India, a land of much fascination in this country for giving birth to Buddhism and Bollywood, has long both perplexed and rankled officials at the Ministry of Tourism.
The unflattering statistics may soon become a thing of the past, officials say, following a new tourism push across several Chinese cities that India will launch in the coming months, to tap the world's fastest growing major tourism market.
India Tourism has for the first time begun to seek out newly affluent Chinese in cities beyond Beijing and Shanghai, and has introduced roadshows in several Chinese cities to directly appeal to Chinese consumers, moving away from the older strategy of only dealing with travel agents.
This month, the Incredible India campaign will for the first time reach Ningbo, a port city in eastern China, where an Indian food festival will be held. Another festival will be held in Xian, where chefs from Hyderabad will be flown in. The recent push is beginning to pay dividends, Shoeb Samad, the director of India Tourism in Beijing, told The Hindu in an interview.
“There is an increased awareness of India in China, and we are beginning to see a far higher number of tour groups this year going to India for exhibitions,” he said.
But last year only saw a marginal increase in traffic by around 3,000 travellers, up from 98,724 in 2008. With an overall dip in tourist traffic following the Mumbai terror attacks and the financial crisis, the numbers still compared favourably with other countries, Mr. Samad argued.
However, travel agencies in Beijing and Shanghai say persisting negative public perceptions, some outdated, on difficulties in obtaining visas and on the safety of foreign travellers in India continue to deter many potential tourists. Of five travel agencies The Hindu spoke with, three said they did not think it made business sense to offer India-dedicated services, citing visa problems. The demand was still far higher for southeast Asia and Europe, agencies said.
Every year, around 1.56 million Chinese travel to Japan. Another 1.46 million travelled to Vietnam, while 1.37 million to South Korea, according to the National Tourism Administration.
Mr. Samad said the tourism campaign was focusing on changing perceptions over visa difficulties. “There were perceptions that visas are tough, but that is not the case,” he said. “While there may be problems with employment visas, for tourist visas we assure travellers we are processing them within 5 days.”
Another reason for the poor traffic is the lack of Chinese-speaking tour guides, which the Tourism Ministry has also promised to address.
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