Specialist programme by Nov

German National Tourist Office-India (GNTO) hopes to enlist at least 1000 travel agents for the Germany Specialist programme and those who successfully complete it will be given preference at trade events and Fam trips.

Germany received 329,860 Indian visitor overnights during JanuaryMay this year, reflecting a 12.8 per cent growth over the same period in 2016, informed Romit Theophilus, Director, Sales and Marketing, German National Tourist Office (India), at the Discover Germany roadshow held in Delhi recently.

“We grew by 8.6 per cent year-on-year and recorded over 413,000 overnights last year. By the end of this year, we hope to close nearly 800,000 overnights from India to Germany. We are on track to achieve our goal of a million Indian visitors to Germany by 2020, and hopefully receive two million Indian arrivals by 2030,” says Theophilus. The roadshows were also held in Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

German Tourism will launch a training and education programme for Indian travel agents from November this year. India is one of the first countries where German National Tourism Board is scheduled to launch this Germany Specialist programme for the travel trade. Commenting on the same, Theophilus says, “The programme will be a more generic introduction to Germany initially, with more in depth modules to be rolled out in due course. We estimate to enlist about 1000 travel agents pan India through this online training programme over the next one year. Those who register and successfully complete the programme will get preference in various trade events and Fam trips that the tourism board will be hosting.”

Theophilus further informs that until now, Germany had especially been very popular for MICE and business travel from India, but lately, the destination has picked up for leisure travel as well. “It is now a 50-50 split between MICE, business and leisure travellers from India, and we are hopeful that Germany will be seen as a choice destination for all segments,” he adds.

We are on track to achieve our goal of a million Indian visitors to Germany by 2020 and hopefully receive two million Indian arrivals by 2030. Romit Theophilus Director, Sales and Marketing German National Tourist

Talking about the future campaigns, Theophilus points out that GNTO (India) will highlight the theme Culinary Germany in 2018, with subthemes like nature, along with its current theme of Palaces, Parks and Gardens. This year, besides the regular suppliers like Cologne Tourism, Saxony Tourism, KD German Rhine Line, Rail Europe, Lufthansa, Stuttgart and SouthWest Germany, etc., India roadshow also saw two new exhibitorsVienna House, a hotel chain with footprint across Europe, and McArthur Glen Designer Outlets, Europe’s leading owner, developer and manager of designer outlets.