Cultural Tourism: a Transcendent approach for tourism marketing in India

Abstract

Tourism is a multisegment composite industry, employs more people than any single industrial sectors. According to the world tourism organization of the United Nation, tourism accounts for 8% of the total world exports, more than 31% of international trade in services, and more than 100 million jobs worldwide. It is a global business with no clear boundaries, growing in many parts of the world, leaving no place untouched. We see more people traveling across the length and breadth of the globe, with the improving standards of living, travel and accommodation facilities and the growing level of awareness and exposure of the tourist destinations. Though there is a lot of scope to improve tourism and gain revenues in this sector, the government of India has taken a longer time to take active steps in this direction than other countries like, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand in promoting tourism. However, it has come up with “Incredible India” campaign to promote Indian tourism internationally. The initiative, taken up by Kerala tourism to promote tourism in India was kind of one such in this direction. Marketing has been align with tourism and now the tourism marketing and more specifically destination marketing requires an integrated and consisted approach to develop innovative promotional strategies and to explore new dimensions for projecting image of India as a “holiday country”. India as a tourist destination is not only known for its spectaculars attractiveness but especially for its rich culture and heritage. Foreigners are attracted to Indian culture, ayurveda, art and architecture, above all its pleasant environment and friendly people. Making India as a more popular and recognized tourist destination is the most difficult marketing challenge before Indian tourism industry. This paper explores the new avenues and dimensions which could simplify the process of transforming potential tourists into actual tourists and focuses on the tourism strategies to enhance and increase the attractiveness of tourist destinations in India. Keywords: Tourism Marketing, Tourism strategies

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