MUNICH BULLISH ON INDIA
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In an attempt to persuade Indian travellers to visit Munich and thus increase its share of the Indian outbound pie, Munich Tourist Office (MTO) recently conducted a four-city roadshow in India. The delegation visited Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Delhi, and received good response from the travel trade fraternity. MTO also used these roadshows to showcase their diverse tourism offerings to lure Indian travellers who are still not familiar with the destination.
Karin Baedeker, In-Charge of Marketing and Media Relations, MTO, revealed that Munich received 83,000 overnights from India in 2013, an increase of 12 per cent over 2012. With the promotional efforts, MTO expects Indian arrivals to increase, she said and added that the average stay of an Indian traveller in Munich is four to five nights, above than the average stay of the other Asian travellers which is only two nights.
Positioning Munich as a luxury destination, Annette Kempf, Marketing Sales Manager – Asia, MTO, highlighted that Munich is a city that blends art and culture and caters to a variety of tastes with its outstanding historical buildings, over 60 famous theatres, 49 museums and event locations that offer a wide range of options to organise congresses, symposia, incentives etc. within an exceptional and uniquely customised framework. She further opined that MTO is looking at wooing the honeymoon segment from India.
Corinna Born, Manager PR Incoming/Marketing Communications, Business Division Aviation, Munich Airport, said that Munich Airport is an ideal gateway to the Alpine Region, Europe and beyond for Indian travellers.
“In 2013, 11,600 Indian passengers used Munich Airport of which 75 per cent were transit passengers. Only 25 per cent Indian travellers stayed in Munich. Of all the Indian travellers, only 38 per cent were leisure travellers. Our effort is to tell Indian travellers that Munich has much more to offer and we want Indians to stay in the city,” she said and added that Munich Airport sees great potential for the Indian travel industry in the coming years to develop and sell Munich and Bavaria as popular tourist destinations.