WTO strategy to lure U.S. tourists to State

By S. Anil Radhakrishnan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 19. Creating an awareness on Kerala's tourist attractions, facilities and an aggressive strategy to lure affluent globe-trotters of the major metropolitan centres of the U.S. east and west coasts form part of an action plan chalked out by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) to penetrate the U.S. market.

The "Sectoral Support Mission to Kerala" submitted to the Kerala Tourism Department by the WTO recently includes a review of the performance of the tourism sector, policy, issues, problems and prospects and the U.S. tourism market development strategy and plan.

Prepared on the basis of the WTO consultant, Mr. Robert Clovrdom's inspection of various tourist destinations, discussions with tour operators of the State and an email survey with U.S. travel trade respondents, the report has also recommended the need to create confidence among the relevant U.S. tour operators in Kerala as an "appropriate destination for a commercially successful tour programme".

To attain the goal, the strategy mooted in the report, the first of its kind for Kerala, is to organise workshops, seminars and travel shows in the U.S., besides familiarisation trips and possibly subsidisation of the brochure costs for tours.

In the early period of development of the U.S. market in view of the limited budget available for investment, the WTO feels that it is prudent that the marketing attention should be concentrated on New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston on the northeast seaboard and their catchments, and Los Angeles and San Francisco on the Pacific west coast which have the highest concentrations of experienced and affluent travellers and the best access to international flights to India.

"Any substantive development of American travel to Kerala which treats the State as a sole or primary destination will depend on the operation of direct international air services to the airports in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram."

The State's marketing focus on the U.S. over the next three years should be on developing the older/retiree touring tourist segment attracted by Kerala's variety of distinctive, historical, heritage, cultural and natural features.

The "health and wellness segment" and the "incentive travel segment", though two market segments with lower volume at present, had been recommended to extend support by taking advantage for positive exposure. The WTO has pointed out that the first segment has been identified as the main theme for the Pacific Asia Travel Agents (PATA) meet this year and this fits well with the Ayurvedic medicine and treatment component of Kerala's tourism product.

"If Kerala could achieve endorsement from one or more celebrities for its Ayurvedic medicine and treatment, this would lead to interest in Kerala among a far wider section of the American population", the WTO said.

In view of the high cost of consumer advertising in the U.S. and the budgetary limitations of the State, the focus of marketing should be to maintain the State's tourism web site, further building on the highly successful approach of facilitating travel in the State for writers, photographers and film crews, extending the range of high quality collateral and audio visual materials and undertaking a direct mail campaign.

The Tourism Secretary, Mr. Amitabh Kant, says the strategic marketing plan prepared by the WTO has come at a time when the State has been featured as an exotic destination. "Hitherto, the State had been depending on the European market. We think it is the right time to penetrate the high-value U.S. market," he added.

The biggest challenge to the Indian/Kerala tourism sector is the ignorance of prospective U.S. travellers about the destination. Two out of three U.S. tour operators surveyed have pointed out that the U.S. public have "not at all a clear, accurate or positive perception of India" while for the remaining one-third the perception is "partial but not fully accurate or positive".

In the case for Kerala, the WTO report says the response is even more extreme with, all tour operators stating that the U.S. travelling public have not a "clear, accurate or positive perception of the State and its tourist attractions". It has also been found that U.S. tourists to India/Kerala are rarely aged below 45 years and are typically over 60 years, many being retired and or on high fixed incomes of $ 100,000 a year or above.

Taking the top 10 tourist generating markets, Kerala scores least well in respect of the U.S. tourism market, its 15,301 recorded arrivals in 1999 constituting just six per cent of the all U.S. tourist traffic to India. This is the basis for the present mission focussing its attention on improving the State's performance in the U.S. tourism market.

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