Amritsar makes a big leap of faith
A healthy trend for the city is the fact that while most international tourists visit during the October–March period, domestic tourists and pilgrims visit throughout the year, providing both travel agents and hoteliers with year-round business.
With the Golden Temple being branded as amongst the 10 most beautiful and valuable sites in the world, Amritsar is seeing unbridled tourist growth, emerging as a major national pilgrim and tourist hub.
Gunbir Singh, CMD, Divine Destination, feels Amritsar’s tourist growth merits special attention. Whereas five years ago, the city was getting around 40,000 daily arrivals, today the daily arrivals figure has gone up to a whopping one lakh. The numbers comprise pilgrims and tourists, some five per cent of them being international. Interestingly, this is four times the numbers of tourists reaching Taj Mahal.
A healthy trend for the city is the fact that while most international tourists visit during the October– March period, domestic tourists and pil- grims visit throughout the year, providing both travel agents and hoteliers with year-round business.
Singh feels that travel agents play a crucial role in the Amritsar’s tourism story. While online domestic airline ticketing is growing 15 percent annually, there’s no substitute to agents when it comes to ‘hand-held’ tourism.
Agents should promote thematic journeys. This holds the key to continuing success, and Amritsar provides an excellent business opportunity in this regard.
Rama Mehra, CEO, Ranjit Svaasa, feels Amritsar’s special religious value and charm is instrumental in making visitors genuinely appreciate their experience, and rate it higher even than Agra. With pilgrims and tourists pouring in, the city’s true potential is now being realised, and the travel industry is reaping rewards.
While agents provide guests comfort levels by overseeing everything, they also stand to lose ground if they don’t consider the overall interest of hotels, especially individual, stand-alone properties. They must factor this into their strategy for maximum longterm business gains. Amritsar provides a superb platform for such synergy, which if achieved, will further boost the city’s booming tourist industry.
Shiv Raj Singh, CEO Atithi Voyages, feels Amritsar is a classic case of a destination that has made agents think out of the box and innovate. While Amritsar of the past was essentially a destination for business visitors and a few tourists headed for Dharamshala, Manali and Ladakh; travel agents lately have captured everyone’s imagination by modifying itineraries in ways which has made their overseas partners aware of other interesting possibilities in India. From that point of view, Amritsar has become a hub for agents using the new route to establish old destinations. The growing popularity of the Golden Temple among the expat community seeking weekend getaways has also boosted traffic to the city. The 4- and 5star hotels mushrooming in Amritsar is a sign of this recent development, which will propel tourism growth.