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Promoting India's State Tourism Through Tourism
Marketing
Owing to its rich cultural heritage,
age-old traditions, diverse geographical features and a huge variety
of food, arts & crafts, India is one of the fascinating countries
in the world to travel & discover. Each and every state of India
is blessed with a variety of tourist attractions making India a
'Traveller's Haven'. Every
year, the country attracts many foreign tourists who are mesmerised
by India's scenic beauty, heart-warming ethnic flavour, diverse
flora and fauna & the promise of an experience of a lifetime!
According to the Ministry of Tourism,
in the year 2011, India recorded a 8.9% annual growth in the number
of Foreign Tourist Arrivals in India. In the same year, the
number of Domestic Tourist Visits to all States / UTs of
India saw an annual growth rate of 13.8%. It is safe to say that
the country's domestic tourists provide a boost to the inter-state
tourism, making it one of the most significant revenue generators
for a geographically rich country like India.
Summers in India can be quite hot
and humid in certain Indian states while winter months in other
regions is enough to send shivers down anyone's spine. It is due
to the variable climatic conditions across parts of India
that we use the concept of peak season and off season. During the
peak season, tourist destinations are flooded with visitors and
during the off-season, there is a slump in tourist activity with
a marked reduction in tourist inflow.
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Marketing
Strategies for Tourism Promotion -
Off-Season
Promotion There
is no denying that every state in India has its own Unique
Selling Proposition or USP that makes it special &
appealing to travellers and foreign visitors. This may include
their scenic beauty, famous tourist spots, festivals, local
arts and crafts, entertainment activities and local flavour,
etc.
In an attempt
to push tourism in their states especially during off-season,
State Tourism boards have started making use of well drafted
marketing strategies and programmes that can help them
to catch the attention of prospective travellers and provide
them a reason to visit even during the usual off-season.
States such as Gujarat, Rajasthan
and West Bengal have already started taking steps in this
direction.
This includes
offering out-of-the-box entertainment packages and festival
promotion which provide a unique opportunity to indulge in
local festivities and experience life in those states.
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Role
of Celebrity Endorsements Celebrities,
especially movie stars have for long been seen endorsing various
consumer products in adverts and marketing campaigns. This
association has been taken a step further by the West Bengal
& Gujarat State Governments by hiring Shah Rukh Khan and
Amitabh Bachchan respectively, as their state Brand Ambassadors.
The aim is to use the popularity of these celebrities to promote
tourism and entice prospective tourists to choose these states
as their next holiday destination.
This
is done by designing innovative ad campaigns such as 'Khushboo
Gujarat Ki' that project the essence of these states and
what one can expect here in terms of locales, flora and fauna,
cultural heritage, must-visits and of course the unique local
flavour.
These days,
a large number of MNC's host conferences, events and meetings
at popular destinations such as Jaipur for their employees.
Such trips provide a pleasant change from routine and also
result promoting tourism in these regions.
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Some states benefit from the popularity
of their neighbouring states and this results in pushing tourism
in both states. For example, tourists to Agra usually also plan
to visit Jaipur in their same trip!
Contributed By: Team at contentwriter.in
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