Buoyed by the tourism industry’s post-pandemic recovery, Germany’s national tourism organisation in India has observed a year-over-year increase of 214 per cent in its business, a statement from German National Tourist Office (GNTO) said.
“We are looking at 2 million Indian tourists to visit Germany by 2030 with equal split between business and leisure travellers,” Director of Marketing and Sales Office India at GNTO, Romit Theophilus said.
Speaking about how the business in tourism got impacted during the pandemic, Theophilus said while there are about 1,60,000 Indians who are in Germany on travel-purpose at the moment, around 4,00,000 Indians travelled to the European country before the pandemic between January and May in 2019.
“Overall, in 2019 we had about 9.5 lakh visitors and in 2022, we are hopeful to do about 40 per cent of that. We are expecting two million Indian tourists to visit Germany by 2030 for business purpose and leisure equally,” he said.
The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) has come up with a three-pronged recovery strategy for overcoming the challenges they faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The strategies include raising awareness of the destination and enhancing the brand profile with a focus on sustainability and climate change mitigation. It also includes developing evidence-based action plans on the basis of targeted market research and analysis of changing customer demand.
“The German National Tourist Board is promoting sustainable and forward-looking tourism with the objectives of the German government. Our organisation is following a three-pillar strategy that combines sharing of knowledge with external partners and a supporting communications strategy with our internal sustainability initiative. This is particularly important as the pandemic has accelerated the global shift in travellers’ values towards social and environmental responsibility,” the statement read.
Speaking about issuance of tourist visas, Theophilus said the travellers will have to apply for it at least two months in advance. “The visas are taking a bit longer, but colleagues at the visa section are working very hard to improve the situation and hopefully, this will get rectified sooner rather than later,” he said.
The GNTB has also come up with two new campaigns showcasing nature and cultural tourism that focuses on highlighting sustainable tourism attractions and open-air activities.
“The campaigns ‘German Local Culture’ and ‘Embrace German Nature’ convey peaceful coexistence of generations, traditions and different cultural influences. We are reflecting authentic, local experiences in urban destinations with the integration of rural areas and their sustainable tourism offers and natural attractions,” the statement said.
