With India’s outbound travel growing, international tourism boards have been eyeing the Indian globetrotter. The latest to join the bandwagon is the New York City tourism board which is hoping to attract an increased number of Indian leisure tourists. Vishakha Talreja caught up with Fred Dixon, executive vice-president of NYC & Company, the tourism board of New York City, on his recent visit to India for the Brand USA show. Excerpts from the conversation:
How important is the India market for you?
Well, about 2,15,000 Indians visited New York City in 2012, registering a healthy 8 per cent growth over last year. In 2012, for the first time, we had more leisure tourists than business ones. India is the 14th largest market for us, and we see its rank climbing despite the economic slowdown that this country is facing. For Indians, New York City, in terms of market share, is the top destination in the US. That’s quite encouraging for us.
Travelling to New York City is an expensive proposition. How are you looking at attracting more tourists?
Among Indians, the perception is that New York is an expensive city. But with 73 new properties becoming operational by 2016, hotel room rates should stabilize. These hotels are in various segments, from five-star to budget to boutique. Earlier, we didn’t have a national tourism board, or campaign (like Incredible India), so it was difficult for individual cities to market themselves. But now we have Brand USA that is promoting travel to the US. We also have an online training academy, and we have already trained around 2,000 Indian agents to become NYC specialists. By educating the travel trade, we are hoping for more numbers.
But it’s still very difficult to get a US visa. Your comment?
We understand that getting a US visa is a hurdle. But we are working on fixing the problem. President Obama recognizes that tourism from emerging markets such as India, Brazil and China plays an important role and, therefore, the visa regime should be improved. In India, the wait time has already gone down for US visas. Also for renewal of visas one doesn’t need to go for an interview, now. So we are taking gradual steps to make the process simpler.
Has the rupee depreciation impacted travel to New York?
I am sure there will be some impact on corporate travel. However, this is only anecdotal right now. The figures for 2013 will reflect if there is a significant dip in travel growth from India.