In its efforts to attract more and more tourists from the Gulf and the Middle East region, India has organized a seminar in Kuwait to provide a glimpse of the attractive tourism products as well as cultural, spiritual and travel experiences that it offers as a tourist destination.
The 'Know India Seminar' was organized Wednesday in Crowne Plaza Hotel, Kuwait, in cooperation with the Embassy of India in Kuwait.
The seminar was organized to provide a glimpse of the attractive tourism products as well as cultural, spiritual and travel experiences that India offers as a tourist destination.
The Gulf and the Middle East region are emerging as an important tourism generating market for India, said HE Sunil Jain while inaugurating the event. Indian Embassy Cultural secretary Sri AK Srivastava welcomed the audience.
Mr Ranjan Pattanaik, Director of India tourism, Ministry of Tourism Govt of India made a presentation depicting the country as a multi-faceted tourist destination for luxury, wildlife, and wellness/medical tourism. "India has evolved as a round the year destination and all efforts are being made to develop niche products like wellness and medical tourism; adventure and wildlife tourism; film tourism; monsoon tourism; golf, polo and sports tourism and MICE tourism, while at the same time adding value to the cultural and heritage products of the country", he said.
Members of the Travel and tourism Industry also attended the event.
The Gulf and the Middle East has been showing a positive growth of Foreign Tourist Arrivals to India over the last 2 to 3 years with around 3,43,113 tourist arrivals registered during 2013 showing a growth of nearly 17.9 % over the previous year. As traffic from GCC to India is concerned, there has been a whooping increase of 33.5% from Saudi Arabia over the last year, followed by Sultanate of Oman by 25.1% and 23.6% increase from UAE which clearly indicates that the interest of Arab Nationals is increasing every year and preferring India as a favorite Tourist destination. Tourist traffic from Kuwait to India was 10,593 during last year, 2013. Equal number of visas is issued till September 2014 and expects more traffic from Kuwait to India during the current year as the awareness about India is growing every year.
The percentage of Foreign Tourist Arrivals visiting India for Medical Treatment has also been increasing over the years and growing rapidly since the year 2000. India is also popular for Wellness Tourism with the ancient practice of healing, yoga and Ayurveda which has been known for more than 5,000 years and now it is time for the world to experience it.