With the global tourism industry recovering as the pandemic recedes, Germany hopes to improve travel sentiment from India. The country plans to invest half a million euros in India to promote tourism.
The German National Tourist Office in the country said it has seen a year-on-year increase of 214% in its business from India, in the first half of the year alone.
India is among the top 20 priority markets for Germany since the latter received about 960,000 Indian travellers in 2019. Between January and May, the office expressed hosting 160,000 tourists from India and they hope to reach their 2019 tourist numbers by the end of 2023. “At the moment there is a huge demand from India to travel to Germany. The tourism board will invest 500,000 euros to promote tourism in India”, they said.
This project also seeks to promote Germany as a destination for culturally interested travellers, families and active vacationers in the Indian market. Germany accounted for 9% of European trips from Indians and while 55% of Indian tourists visit Germany for leisure, 38% travel for business.
Romit Theophilus, director of the German National Tourist Office in India (GNTO), explained that there was a recovery in travel from India since January this year. There are about 70,000 students from India taking classes in Germany, so the actual number of visitors from India is much higher. Usually, families of students tend to visit the country as well.
“There is a lot of tourism happening, and so, visas have been a challenge. But we know that the embassy is working really hard to solve this”, Theophilus said.
“We have started to notice a lot of Indians, especially those that are Double Income No Kids (DINKS), like to travel during August because it is typically off-peak tourist season and travel tends to be a little easier at this time,” said Theophilus.
Because of increased demand for new experiences this season among visitors from the Indian market, the board is debuting a new campaign to highlight its natural and cultural tourism, along with other sustainable touristic attractions and open-air activities.
The campaign, ‘German.Local.Culture.’ and ‘Embrace German Nature’ will emphasize authentic, local experiences in urban destinations with the integration of rural areas and their sustainable touristic offers and natural attractions.
According to ResearchAndMarkets.com, the Indian outbound tourism market is expected to surpass $42 billion by the end of 2024.