Switzerland beckons Indian tourists

Chennai: With Indian tourists among the biggest spenders in Switzerland, the Swiss Tourism is pulling out all the stops to promote the land of mountains, glaciers and rivers to potential tourists.

A team of 22 officials from Switzerland Tourism is in Chennai to promote Switzerland as a destination of choice among the travel agents, who in turn will take the message to the potential travellers.

On an average, an Indian spends Swiss Franc 350, including on hotels and restaurants, while it was Swiss Franc 200 among other nationals, Ms Ritu Sharma, Deputy Director and Media Manager, India, Switzerland Tourism, which promotes Switzerland as a holiday and travel destination.

Switzerland continues to be a major attraction for Indians, especially with a number of films shot in that country. Last year, nearly 4.5 lakh Indians stayed overnight in Switzerland, which was nearly 100 per cent growth when compared with the previous year. This year, the target is to grow the overnight stay by Indians by nearly 20 per cent, she told newspersons.

Key markets
India, Brazil and China, and Gulf countries are the key markets that the Switzerland Government will focus this year. Reason, due to the Euro crisis, the Europeans may not spend too much while it is the Indians, Chinese, Brazilians and people in the Gulf who could afford to travel to Switzerland.

Tier II and III towns
Switzerland Tourism will undertake marketing activities this year ranging from customer reach out programmes and advertising campaigns to training programmes for travel agents in tier-II and tier-III cities. The marketing initiatives will focus on the fact that not only is Switzerland a perfect destination for family holidays and honeymooners but also for other segments such as senior holidays, gourmet holidays and adventure holidays, she said.

Year of water
The Switzerland Tourism has dedicated the year 2012 to the ‘year of water' to celebrate its famous glaciers, lakes and rivers. This campaign will create a perfect backdrop for Indian tourists, since Indians have long revered water as divine. In 2011, it was the year of ‘hiking,' which was not liked by Indians, she said.

MICE
Meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions will continue to be a major focus as Switzerland is becoming popular with small group of 100-200 people as well as large movements. For instance, Amway took 3,500 people to Switzerland in May, she said.