‘FTAs will continue to rise’
India witnessed 10.6 per cent growth in foreign tourist arrivals ( FTAs) last year. But the point of concern currently is the grim fact that in the first six months of 2015, the growth in FTA has been sluggish. This was revealed by Girish Shankar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism.
Giving more details about the slow growth of FTAs in the first six months of 2015, he said, “There has been about 5 per cent growth in the first six months of this year. This was the situation in 2014 as well as India has still not picked up as a summer destination. But we are expecting a better growth in the next six months. And we are hopeful that the growth this year will surpass our FTA growth of 10.6 per cent last year.” Shankar was speaking at the MOT workshop organised by the PATA India Chapter.
Addressing the challenges of travel agents and the hurdles in the way of eTV, he said, “This 15th August, we have unveiled eTV for another 36 countries. Another remarkable development is the open- ing up of this facility at seven new airports. I understand that you ( travel agents) are facing challenges and feel that the eTV should be available 60 or even 90 days in advance and not just 30 days earlier. We also understand that single-entry eTV prevents travellers from going to other countries such as Sri Lanka
and Nepal or Bhutan. We have taken this up with the Ministry of Home Affairs ( MHA) and are working on both these issues.”
According to Shankar, MOT is also consolidating its presence in terms of media communications in various source countries.
“In terms of strengthening our presence with regards to media, we are appointing PR agencies in five important markets in Germany, Japan, China, the US and the UK. They will act as our taskforce for disseminating the right kind of information on tourism events in our country,” he added.