India took centrestage at this year's International Tourism Bourse (ITB) in Berlin, the world's largest tourism trade fair. Minister of tourism Ambika Soni, who personally oversaw the campaign, spoke to Raghu Karnad about India's success and the road ahead for the growth of tourism in India. Excerpts:
First of all, congratulations on India's role as partner at the ITB—by all accounts it was a huge success.
It sounds almost on the scale of Indira Gandhi's Festivals of India.
laughs
What was the secret to organising such a good show?
Were some of the arrangements outsourced to private consultants?
This !ncredible India campaign seems to have been very successful and has had great retention in people's minds.
Indian tourism officials have been talking about the need for India to be rebranded to attract tourists. How does 'brand India' need to change?
Inbound tourism grew by 13 per cent between '05-06, but India still has a long way to go to get its fair share of world tourism.
Do you see a role for the private sector in developing infrastructure? For instance, managing heritage sites?
Are tourism initiatives geared towards foreign tourists, thereby ignoring domestic tourism?
The media and the ministry are talking of tourism entirely in terms of its rate of growth, without discussing its social and ecological costs. Don't we need to evaluate the impact of the industry in development-related terms as well?
Officials said Indian companies did business worth $1.45 billion at Berlin. Is that true?
What was the high point of your time there, personally?
