Just don't do it

TOURISM: Travel operators oppose closure of the India Tourism Offices.

The face of Indian tourism in the key revenue generating markets of the world for years "" the India Tourism Offices (ITO) "" may get the axe shortly.

Recent reports say that the Indian government is planning to do away with these dozen-odd foreign tourist offices in prime locations around the world to save money, and replace them with virtual offices.

Most private travel and tour operators have, however, cast their vote in favour of continuation, and even strengthening, of these offices, saying that they provide useful service.

Senior industry veteran Ghulam Naqshband, director, Le Passage to India, is totally against closing down ITOs which he feels have been successful over the years in promoting India internationally.

He says ITOs have also been helpful to foreign tour operators, providing them assistance in getting visas, financial support for printing brochures (and that is not insignificant) as well as in organising road shows and workshops for travel agents.

London-based Eleanor Milner, head of sales and marketing, Europe and UK, Cox&Kings, thinks the move is regressive: "It is a bad move. In London, a lot of tour operators and consumers visit the India Tourism Office for information and help and they do a wonderful job. Any joint marketing activity in the regional markets can be discussed and a decision arrived at quickly. These offices should be strengthened."

The best thing to do is to make them more cost-competitive, according to Sunirmol Ghosh, director, Indo Asia Leisure Services: "There are archaic rules of the government which say that the India Tourism Office needs to be at a prime location and that too on the ground floor of a building so that people can walk in. Who needs offices in these prime locations today?"

For small operators who go to unknown places to get business, these ITOs have been the first helping hand. Ghosh gives his own example, when he went to Switzerland for the first time 20 years ago.

He wouldn't have got appointments with potential partners without the intervention of the India Tourism Office in Geneva.

Both Naqshband and Ghosh feel that ITOs should be set up in new destinations with tourism potential and there should be no disturbance in locations from where a large number of travellers to India emanate.