India’s G20 presidency and promotion of city tourism

The G20 summit in India saw more than 30,000 delegates from 125 countries who witnessed India’s Atithidevo Bhava, meaning ‘Guest is God’. They might have indeed emerged as brand ambassadors for Indian tourism. The G20 meetings in India were spread across more than 32 cities across India, each with unique cultures and tourist identities. Several Indian cities have more than a thousand-year-old history with specific tourist destinations, boasting enchanting historical sites and delicious street food with traditional tastes. In this context, our priority may be to develop Indian cities into up-market tourist destinations and to attract tourists to stay longer and spend more, making use of tourism for social-economic development in a sustainable manner. Various studies conducted validate that Indian city tourism at present lacks a ‘unique city image’, ‘branding’ and ‘slogan’. This ultimately leads to a lack of proper knowledge about this tourist destination, resulting in slow growth of tourists in this area. This necessitates the implementation of “finding target cities” for propagation and promotion activities. This is the right time to encash those opportunities bestowed by G20 to embark on India’s ‘city tourism’ journey. In this context, best practices from various cities across the world are critical. ‘Los Angeles Tourism Marketing Model’ is one such best practice wherein its Department of Convention & Tourism Development (DCTD)’s “Hello LA” theme targets the Chinese market. In response to the travel characteristics and personalized and diversified needs of Chinese tourists, the DCTD of Los Angeles achieves integrated innovation in tourism marketing methods, and tailors various types of tourism products and services for Chinese tourists, creating a Los Angeles tourism brand. Accurate target market selection, diversified destination brand image promotion, domestic and foreign industry cooperation, and the appearance of leaders have formed a unique “Los Angeles Tourism Marketing Model”, which provides a reference for overseas marketing of Indian cities. Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) created a popular and well-recognised marketing slogan – “Amazing Thailand” or “Discover Amazing Stories in Amazing Thailand” – which attracts attention at first sight for it triggers people’s imagination and curiosity by providing the possibility of exploring Thailand or discovering themselves in a novel angle. In particular, TAT launched the marketing campaign – “Discover the Other You” – in early 2012 by encouraging tourists’ involvement in six key Thai cultural activities, including Thai boxing, cooking, massage, and performing arts classes and lessons in rice farming, crafts and weaving, and the Thai language (Walanchalee & Markus, 2016). This campaign promoted the “Unique Thai Experience” through Thai-ness experiences and Thai cultural absorption as a competitive advantage by adding value to tourism products. TAT also developed a series of innovative activities such as “Village to the World”, “Creative Thailand” and “The Link to highlight the Thai Local Experience”. In 2018, TAT changed its communication strategy slightly with a new “Open to the New Shades of Thailand” concept. The idea extends the “Unique Thai Local Experience” to more expansive geographical areas, including remote islands, with a view of presenting the whole of Thailand to international travelers, especially providing new experiences to repeat visitors. This minor change in marketing direction helped to upgrade the country’s image as a tourism destination worth exploring again and again, thus attracting more first-time visitors as well as retaining current visitors. As far as Singapore is concerned, the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 ranks its international openness, business environment, travel and tourism policy, and enabling conditions as the best in the world. A significant component of Singapore Tourism is ‘tourism events’. Singapore Tourism Board facilitates and gives more emphasis to a variety of events all year round for tourists. Some of the most prominent events are the Singapore Arts Festival, Chingay Parade, and Singapore Garden Festival. This attracts tourists from various countries, especially during this season. The Singapore Food Festival held every year in July highlights Singapore’s cuisine, which is celebrated empathetically. The other prominent events are Singapore Jewel Festival, the Christmas Light Up, and the Singapore Sun Festival. Another recent highlight of Singapore tourism is that it hosted the FIA Formula One World Championship (Singapore Grand Prix). The races are held on a new street circuit at Marina Bay and this is a significant turning point and first such night-time event in Formula One history. Taiwan’s ‘destination image’ promotion model is another best practice wherein destination image generally refers to “a totality of impressions, beliefs, ideals, expectations and feelings accumulated towards a place over time”. Destination image plays a fundamental role in the success of travel destinations in that the image influences the pre-visitation choice process, and post-visitation behaviours such as tourist satisfaction, repeat-purchase intention, and word-of-mouth communication. Taiwan has made its name in cycling tourism. It is a distinctive signature of Taiwan tourism and cultivated into a high growth industry. Many films featured the cycling experience in Taiwan and cycling enthusiasts worldwide would like to try cycling in Taiwan. “Taiwan on 2 Wheels” has become a recognised brand. Cycling also embodies and promotes low-carbon footprint and sustainability, a healthy lifestyle, and closeness to nature, which largely increase its appeal in this modern world. Bicyclists enjoy Taiwan’s policy support. They have a dedicated bicycle path. The Taiwan Cycling Route No. 1 is renowned for its beautiful scenery and well-designed supply station. Just like the above three examples, if you think of Beijing, the image of the Great Wall will appear; think of Los Angeles, Hollywood will appear; think of Venice, Gondola will seem; think of Paris, the Eiffel Tower will appear; think of New York, the Statue of Liberty will appear; city tourism in India needs to find unique selling points that can represent the ‘city image’ globally and make this amazing image attractive, impressive and catchy. Surjith Karthikeyan and Reshma Rajeevan serves as Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Finance & Assistant Director, NITI Aayog respectively, at Government of India. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._ Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.