E-Promotion of Tourism in India

Hospitality sector in India is luring foreign tourists towards Spirituality, Yoga, Medical tourism, and Cultural diversity from past few decades. Tourism promoters are using attractive promotional strategies and revitalizing old tourism offerings. Ministry of tourism, associated departments and affiliated agencies are developing new e-promotional strategies and providing useful information for tourists. On the other side Indian tourism industry is facing severe problems, reporting crime and misconduct against foreign tourists, theft, cheat, terrorist attacks, unsafe travelling etc. In the recent years a growing number of tourist destinations are struggling for image and reputation. Indian tourism is demanding effective promotional strategies for attracting tourists towards safe destinations.The year 2008-09 has been a year of challenge and response for India. International tourist arrivals continued to deteriorate due to the impact of global economic crisis with the growth of overseas tourists visiting India slowing down to 5.6 per cent in 2008 as against 14.3 per cent in 2007. Tourist footfalls had further declined in the aftermath of the co-ordinated terror-strike at Taj and Oberoi, the premier hotels in Mumbai. Nevertheless, Indian tourism sector outperformed the global growth of 2 per cent in international tourist arrivals in 2008. This paper is an effort to discuss various promotional tools, promotional strategies, e-promotion strategies for safe tourism. This descriptive study is secondary data based in depth research. The paper will also discuss new tourism products and problems in deciding promotional mix for safe tourism under turbulent marketing environment. International Tourism is a U.S. $ 4 trillion plus service sector, growing at an average rate of 10% per year. If India wishes to open Tourism sector for international tourism, it has to plan strategically and revitalized internally to provide safe tourism to meet the varied needs of international tourists. There are ample reasons why it is important to discuss tourism. Firstly, it is a major world service sector impacting interrelated industries. Tourism and general travel are 11% of world GDP. Tourism is growing faster in the developing world according to World Tourism Organisation (WTO).