Destination branding in India Tourist destinations have always vied for the attention of travellers. Tourism boards are leaving no stone unturned to see that their state entertains maximum tourist arrivals. Now that aggressive promotions are passé, the time has come for ‘destination branding’, wherein destinations are positioned as products having brand value. TravelBiz Monitor reviews successful destination branding by various Indian states

Globalisation has given marketing of tourist destinations a whole new meaning as countries, regions and individual destinations compete with one another to attract investment and visitors. Vision and brand are a fundamental part of commercial activity, but does a destination need a vision and a brand for tourism development? The answer is yes because destinations, like companies, must communicate to a broad market of consumers about what they are, what they offer, what they do and the consistency and quality of their offerings. This is accomplished through the brand and the vision. Ultimately, a company’s vision is the most visible part of the company’s marketing strategy and the same holds true for tourist destinations . Destination branding is a presentation of the combination of what makes a destination, these include its products and services like agriculture, tourist spots, sports, arts, investment, technology, education etc. Mini Case Study: Incredible India campaign How to brand the destination in the existing and emerging markets is the responsibility of the tourism bodies promoting those destinations. The term destination branding has come about in recent times in the quest to draw maximum tourists to one’s state. The challenges of branding a destination for a country like India is a big task, given the diversity within the nation, as well as the diversity in the target markets. Tourists travelling to the US or Europe are quite aware of what to expect. But for first time visitors to India, there are always concerns about what they might encounter. Till 2002, Indian tourism was promoted through delegates at the Indian tourist offices located globally. These promotional campaigns were not too effective as the promotional approach was unorganised, varied, and limited by the skills and capabilities of the delegates. In September 2002, the Ministry of Tourism unveiled a new campaign called ‘Incredible India’ to promote Indian tourism globally. The first phase of the campaign, for a period of three months, was jointly funded by Government of India and Experience India Society, an association of travel agents in India. The campaign focused on the Himalayas, wildlife, yoga and Ayurveda and was widely promoted in the print media, television and the Internet. The television campaign was telecasted on CNN, BBC and other popular channels across the world. The brand personality was named ‘Incredible India’, essentially as a positioning and branding strategy that differentiates India in the global market place. It was developed so that all tourism offices, tour operators and organisations promoting India as a destination could market it in a unified and consistent manner. ‘Incredible India’ has been built on a solid research foundation that resulted in a set of descriptors for personality and values of India as an essence that captures the underlying spirit of the country. Therefore, ‘Incredible India’ captured its unique spirituality, the varied colours of its landscapes and the distinctive character of its people. The positioning of India was not only the breathtaking locales, the mysticism of the East, the draw towards civilisation, the call of the wild, but much more than all this. Apart from the Incredible India campaign that promotes India as a whole, Indian states have individually taken measures to attract inbound as well as foreign traffic. Kerala: ‘God’s own country’ Around 1994, Kerala Tourism recognised that sustainable marketing was the key to promote the destination, advertisements featuring the tagline, ‘God’s Own Country’, began appearing in the print and electronic media in India. These advertisements were not run by a company to promote its products and services. Instead, the campaign was run by Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) and was intended to promote the South Indian state of Kerala as a tourist destination. With this decision, Kerala Tourism started independent exhibition stands – both within India and internationally at trade fairs, road-shows etc. It adopted a multi-region strategy and also focussed on infrastructure development and up-gradation of facilities including two new airports in Kochi and Kozhikode, approach roads to tourist destinations and also public amenities. The advertisers projected Kerala as ‘the place to be’, marketing every aspect of the state from the towns, cities, beaches, backwaters, cultural heritage, food, wildlife and even the centuries-old tradition of healthcare through Ayurveda. These aspects of Kerala, which were identified as the state’s unique selling propositions, were packaged in a professional way by KTDC. Apart from these marketing initiatives, the government of Kerala made an effort to professionally manage the state’s tourism industry. KTDC perhaps had no idea that with this campaign, it had hit upon a gold mine. Over the next few years, the organisation’s efforts to ‘sell’ Kerala to Indians as well as foreigners began paying off. The state reportedly became one of the destinations with the ‘highest brand recall’, thanks to its unique positioning and targeting efforts. To innovate with the product offerings, the KTDC identified new destinations and developed circuits like Kumarakom, Munnar, Wayanad and other destinations like Kovalam and Thekkady were added to the Kerala portfolio. The addition of these destinations brought central Kerala into the limelight as the hub of tourism activities. It also introduced niche and unique segments like Backwaters and Ayurveda. With a focussed approach, these two segments became popular internationally and the average duration of stay in Kerala went up from 4.4 days to 14 days. The hike in average duration of stay disclosed the potential of Kerala. “Tourism had started to pick up, foreign tour operators started including Kerala in their holiday programmes and catalogues, destination management companies came into existence and also investments started flowing in,” stated Dr Venu V, Secretary, Kerala Tourism. Kerala Tourism. To further understand the destination, Kerala Tourism conducted ‘Carrying Capacity Studies and Environment Impact Assessments’ to ascertain the long term sustainability of the destination. In the late 1990s, inspired by the Kerala experience, other Indian states such as Goa, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu began taking steps towards branding and marketing themselves as tourist destinations. Madhya Pradesh The state which is in the heart of India is diverse in its wildlife, heritage and natural resources. Surprisingly, the state did not realise its untapped potential until four to five years ago. Post 2004, the state government decided to market its tourist attractions aggressively. The result being increased profits with every passing year. According to official statistics, last year 1.41 crore tourists visited the state and there has been an increase of an annual average of 40 per cent from 2007 to 2008. According to Ashwini Lohini, Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (MPTDC), the increase is a result of a focused, growth-oriented strategy. Currently, MPTDC promotes its archaeology, Khajuraho, wildlife and pilgrimages. Rajasthan The state which claims to be the ‘incredible state of India’, until now, promoted its culture and heritage to lure inbound tourists. The marketing efforts of the state nationally and internationally, to promote Luxury Tourism via exquisite palaces , ‘Palace on Wheels’ and the city locales through various cultural festivals has put the state on the global map. Rajasthan spends huge sums of money for infrastructural developments to build new tourism circuits. The arrival of foreign tourists to Rajasthan has seen a quantum jump from 0.6 million in 2003 to 1.4 million in 2007, a whopping 100 per cent plus growth in four years. Likewise, the arrival of domestic tourists has also doubled from 12.5 million to 26 million from 2003-2007. Gujarat The Gujarat government is promoting tourism in the state through fairs, festivals and also Medical and Business Tourism. During the recent Navratri Festival, Gujarat Tourism organised packages of four nights/five days and three nights/four days covering different circuits of various segments of Religious Tourism, Heritage Tourism etc. In tune with the national goal to promote India as the most favoured Medical Tourism destination, Gujarat has aggressively adopted the concept to promote tourism using Vibrant Gujarat. As part of its Navratri Celebrations, the government of Gujarat took the opportunity to promote its world-class medical facilities and medical expertise making Gujarat a preferred destination for Medical Tourism for Non Resident Indians (NRI) and specifically Non Resident Gujaratis (NRG). Recently, a website was launched to tap the large NRG segment for Medical Tourism. The website includes information on medical facilities in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Baroda and Surat. Gujarat’s medical expertise and the strength of its facilities are considered to be better than those of some of the South East Asian nations and Gujarat hospitals are working a lot harder to sell medical facilities abroad. Branding for niche segments In the current scenario, when tourists are becoming more specific about their needs and wants, the industry players are coming up with new ways of attracting consumers via new products and offers. In India, the four different zones, i.e North, South, East and West are working as four different groups to increase the number of tourist arrivals to their particular zones. The tourism boards of all the North Eastern states are working together with the Ministry of Tourism (MoT) to sell the region as one whole package. Similarly, Southern states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are promoting each other through Joint Ventures and participation in various trade fairs. The term ‘destination’ and ‘product’ are often confused. The former is often considered to be a tourism product in itself, but industry players argue that the destination is simply a geographical unit within which any number of differing products can be purchased and experienced. The product can be seen as the total tourism experience which comprises a combination of all the service elements, which the tourist consumes from the time they leave home to the time of return. Hence, the total product is much larger than the destination itself, and usually embodies several tourism products. There are certain states which are pioneers of Medical Tourism and there are others which are ideal for MICE and Business Tourism. The partnership between such two states can increase the experience value of the tourists to India as well as tourist traffic to both the states.