Ladies and Gentlemen,

Living in a world called “Global Village”, India and China are not at all two “ distant neighbours”, any more. Frequent and continuous people to people contact by means of tourism is the way to create awareness, love & trust, to increase mutual understanding and to enrich our lives

The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI)-is the national association for all travel agents, tour operators, travel consultants, airlines & hoteliers in the Country and in fact represents the entire travel and tourism fraternity in India. It has been in existence for over 55 years now and has a membership of 2500 agents all over India. All our members are thorough professionals in their respective fields and are recognized as pioneers in the industry.

Talking about the Indian Tourism scenario, a notable feature of international tourism growth has been the gradual shift in the preference for destinations, from Europe and North America to South Asia. India being one of the major South-Asian tourist destinations, with the diversity of natural attractions and rich tapestry of cultural heritage woven into a range of tourism products, can certainly expect to exploit this trend in its favour. There is also a phenomenal explosion of domestic tourism and outbound tourism which is an inevitable by- product of the prosperity that India has achieved during the last decade. The economic liberalization and reform process of the 1990s, enabled tourism sector to attract investment for tourism related infrastructure development. The National policy on tourism was announced in the year 2002.

Road shows in key source markets and the ‘Incredible India’ campaign on prominent TV channels and in magazines across the world were among the few steps taken to advertise Indian tourism.

India’s tourism industry, be it inbound, outbound or domestic – every segment has witnessed rapid changes especially in the last five years. India is the fastest growing tourist economy where tourism has grown at a very healthy 13 pre cent per annum in the past four years. In 2006, international inbound travel to India peaked at a record 4.4 million arrivals, driven probably by the successful re-positioning of the destination brand through the ‘Incredible India’ marketing campaign. India’s domestic travel market has also shown a steady upward trend over the past 15 years, as many of the States woke up to the potential of home-grown tourism to stimulate economic growth and boost employment.

However there are still infrastructural inadequacies that are constraining the growth of tourism in India. In order to attract more visitors, India needs to increase room supply, open further its skies to increase air capacity, and upgrade its airports, roads and other infrastructure to global standards.

Coming back to our hosts, Chinese people are very hospitable and traveling in China is affordable and safe. More than 2500 years ago, Confucius said “ Isn’t it a delight to have friends coming from afar who cherish the same ideas and follow the same path?” Following this teaching, Chinese people never hesitate to cater to their friends with kindness and hospitality. You could enjoy excellent service in hotels and restaurants just as local tourists do. Expenditure on accommodation is very affordable in China. In less than 100 US$, you can have a standard room in a four-star hotel for one night with excellent facilities and service. As for air transportation goes, could you imagine that you can have a two hour flight from Shanghai to Beijing in USD25 odd in the off-season ?

With the economic booming of East Asia and Pacific Region, China has become one of the world’s top tourism destinations. According to the statistics of World Tourism Organization, from 1990 to 2004, international tourist arrivals in this region increased 3 times. China is now ranked as the No. 1 tourism destination in the region.

Ladies & Gentlemen, we have had the pleasure of visiting your beautiful Country, thanks to CNTA (China National Tourist Administration). We have had a wonderful experience during our visit here. Looking at the immense tourism potential that Yunan province has to offer, TAAI plans to bring in a lot of tourists to Kunming from Calcutta as also the whole of India to showcase this tremendous potential.

Finally, I would like to thank the China National Tourist Administration, the Yunan Provincial Govt. & the Yunan Provincial Tourism Administration for all their efforts in organizing our trip to China.


Thank you all.