Tourism mission goes to India
VisitBritain is embarking on a high profile tourism mission in Mumbai and New Delhi this week in a bid to boost visits from India.
A delegation from the UK, including representatives from Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum and Tour, Historic Royal Palaces, VisitManchester, and St Paul’s Cathedral, will meet with over 10,000 Indian agents.
According to the latest figures, visits from India are growing despite the falling value of the rupee against the pound.
During the first three quarters of 2013, visits from India to the UK were up by 9% on the same period in 2012, reaching new records of 306,000 visits and £349 million in spending.
Holiday visits rose 11%, reaching 121,000 – their highest level for five years.
The amount spent on holiday visits hit a record amount of £62 million, 31% up from the same period last year and breaking 2008’s pre-financial crisis record of £60 million.
VisitBritain said it is confident that it will surpass its ambition to attract a total of 425,000 visits from India by 2016 – worth £380 million in annual visitor spend.
As well as this week’s tourism mission, VisitBritain will launch a ‘Bollywood in Britain’ campaign later this year on the red carpet.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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