Asian giant is interested in attracting visitors from Croatia.
India, one of the largest countries in the world with 1.5 billion inhabitants and a very rich culture, history, gastronomy, and tourism industry, aims to attract much more than the current 11 million foreign tourists a year, including the ones from Croatia, reports Index.hr on October 22, 2016.
That was pointed out at the presentation of Indian tourism in Zagreb, which was organized by the Embassy of India and gathered about 60 representatives of Croatian tourist agencies, hotels and other current and potential partners of Indian tourism. The presentation, with an emphasis on India’s diversity and richness, was given by assistant director of the Bureau of Indian Tourism Organization in Frankfurt Jitendra Jadhav, who noted that in the last couple of years India had launched stronger promotion efforts under the slogan “Incredible India”.
“India offers a diverse and extensive range of tourism options for the whole year, from local culture and traditions to luxury hotels and family accommodation, historic forts, temples, deserts, cities, sports and ski tourism, rural tourism, adrenaline tourism, shopping, food, conference tourism and health tourism”, said Jadhav. He also mentioned that India has a well-developed transport network which facilitates travel.
Indian Ambassador to Croatia Sandeep Kumar said that India was doing all it could to facilitate the arrival of foreign tourists in the country, which is not easy due to visa requirements. Therefore, they are working on ways to facilitate and expedite issuing of visas. “Visas may be a problem for some, but we are doing everything we can, and now it is possible in Croatia to get a visa within two days, which is a day less than before. I invite all those who are interested in travelling to India to contact us at the embassy and we will help them”, said Kumar.
He also pointed out that India is a very safe and clean country, and that its people are very hospitable. But, he noted, anyone who travels to India should have “an open mind and not expect what you have in your country, because everything is different, which is the reason why people travel – to discover and experience something new”.
“India is no longer a cheap country, just like Croatia, but we are still a little bit more affordable than some other countries, especially in Europe and the Americas”, said Kumar. He congratulated Croatia on its tourism results and growing popularity in the world, which he considers warranted, given the country’s beauty and hospitality.
Indian tourists have just started discovering Croatia, and their numbers could increase if Croatia were to promote itself more often in the Indian market. According to data from the eVisitor system, in the first nine months of this year there were 29,600 tourists from India who visited Croatia, which is about 10,000 visitors more than last year, and they had about 69,400 overnight stays, or about 30,000 more than last year.
