Wooing across the border

TRAVEL: Indian charms fail to entice Chinese tourists.

Like all other industries, the Chinese are boosting the international travel industry too. Almost 31 million chinese travelled out last year, a number that is predicted to increase to 100 million by 2020, making China the fourth largest outbound travel market, according to World Tourism Organisation.

However, not even one per cent of the Chinese travellers make it to Indian shores, put off by high costs, tedious visa formalities and lack of infrastructure.

It is estimated that just about 50,000 Chinese braved India in 2005. "Many Chinese are keen to come to India, but one of the main problems is the time taken by a Chinese national to get a visa," says Rajeev Kohli, marketing director, Creative Travel.

Some tour operators say that even tourists are being asked to furnish invitations from Indians to process their visas, leading to serious delays.

That is a charge vehemently denied by the Ministry of External Affairs whose officials claim that what is required "are a few documents like a return ticket, adequate finances and proof of residence. Invitations are required only for business visas".

The Chinese are also put-off by the lack of infrastructure specific to the Chinese. Om Prakash Sahgal, director, Orbit Tours, which sells both inbound and outbound tours from China, feels that there are no proper Chinese language guides and food in India.

And to top that, hotel rooms too are rather extravagantly priced compared to those in competing destinations in South East Asia.

One innovative plan by the tourism ministry has been to catch the Chinese travelling to Singapore and its neighbouring countries.

"We are now issuing visas to the Chinese from Singapore (those who want to travel to India after Singapore)," says an elated Rajeev Talwar, additional director general in the ministry.

And then there is the long pending plan for an India tourism office in China. Interestingly, as India takes its time to work on that, Talwar reveals that the Chinese National Tourism Office has approached the tourism ministry, seeking permission to market India in China.

Marketing and publicity by India in China is one of the big concerns for Edward Zhu Xuemin, chief representative, India, China Eastern Airlines, which has four flights a week between Delhi and Shanghai.

Though his flights are doing well at 70-80 per cent load factor, he reveals that originating traffic from China is only about 20-30 per cent of the load, and aggressive marketing of India could change that.

Some changes are already visible. In the first quarter of the year, there has been a 20 per cent increase in arrivals from China (compared to the same period last year).

With some well-tuned wooing, India could ensure a surge of travellers from the dragon country.