Credible India

Case Study Analysis

- by SMP09, Hyderabad
 Introduction
• To promote tourism in India, tourism department launched “Incredible India” advertising
and marketing campaign in 2002, as usual “Ogilvy and Mather” lived up to their
reputation
• Since then India as a tourism destination was observed very closely by tourists around
the world
• Within 10 years, India’s credibility was at stake as the darker side of India overshadowed
the brighter aspects. Laid back attitude and politically motivated government policies,
rampant corruption, uncontrolled law and order, terrorist attacks got highlighted in the
world news forum.
• India lost its credibility in front of the world. Foreign investors knew India has huge
potential for growth, but were sceptical about investing in a nation having problems
galore. For them India became a nation that is struggling to put its house in order due to
infighting and selfish goals, forget about making it an attractive tourist destination
• In an attempt to educate the people of India and improve the image, Tourism
department and FICCI came up with campaigns like “Atithi Debo Bhavah” and “Credible
India” in 2013.
• Although India is a great country that has true tourism potential, the short sightedness
and selfish interests of the people of India has restricted Indian tourism market
• Using proper planning, strategy and execution at ministerial and corporate level, India
can cover up the lost ground. This needs commitment and dedication from various
departments as well as support from people of India in general
• Based on the “Credible India” case study, following sections briefly covers the marketing
strategies India Inc. should adopt to move forward
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 Segmentation and Target Market
• Tourism market segment categories:
– Heritage, Nature, Religious, Medical, Educational, Sports and Business.
• Target tourist nationals (country) categories:
– Developed, Developing and South East Asian
• Following table depicts the mapping between the tourism
segments and target markets

Segment\Target Market Developed Developing South East Asian

Heritage Yes Yes Yes
Nature/Adventure Yes Yes
Religious Yes Yes Yes
Medical Yes Yes
Educational Yes Yes
Sports Yes Yes Yes
Business Yes Yes Yes

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 Positioning
• Heritage tours:
– British, Portuguese, French colonial towns and cantonments
– Tombs, monuments of Mughal architecture
– Indian king’s palaces, battlefields and residences of the rich and affluent Indians of those days
– Other historical monuments and locations related to freedom struggle
– Historical universities like Nalanda, Ujjain and Vikramshila
– Traditional cottage industries
• Nature tours:
– Tours and treks in and around the Himalayan range
– Forests and greenery of north east India
– National parks to explore wildlife, flora and fauna
– Dry and arid areas of Thar desert and Rann of Kutch
– Beaches of Goa
– Backwaters of Kerala
• Religious tours:
– Buddhism : Religious places like Bodhgaya, Ladakh and Buddhist monasteries of H.P., U.P., M.P., A.P.
– Christianity : Notable churches across India
– Muslim : Prominent mosques and dargahs across India
– Hindu : Temples along the Ganges, and South India that has distinctive architecture
– Sikh : Famous Gurdwara’s across India

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 Positioning ..contd.
• Medical:
– India’s medical tourism sector is expected to experience an annual growth rate of 30%, making it a
$2 billion industry by 2015
– Renowned medical institutes and hospitals performing transplants and operations at reasonable
rates
– Traditional Ayurveda, Unani and Yoga institutes that offer cure for chronic diseases
• Educational:
– Quality education from Universities across India at reasonable rates
– In some cases seats blocked for select countries as part of bilateral treaties
– Vedas, Sanskrit and other traditional courses and languages are also offered from certain institutes
• Sports:
– Spectators and participants of world class sporting events organized in India including high profile IPL
and F1 car racing
– Individual sporting activities like skiing, paragliding, rafting, scuba diving, hiking
• Business:
– With globalization, footfalls of international business travellers have increased dramatically in India’s
prominent cities, especially related to IT industry
– Those coming for short duration wishes to take a break during weekends. Need for weekend
getaway destinations not far from the city.
– Some stay back in India for a longer duration (6-12 months), wishes to bring their family along with
them.
• They need facilities like the ones available in their counties like International schools, hospitals, malls,
residential facilities. Need to make these facilities available if not present in any important city.
• At the same time they find the traditional India and its culture interesting and wants to be part of it. Options
to get in touch with traditional India like DilliHat (Delhi), Shilparamam (Hyderabad).
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 Strategy
In general following strategies can be adopted:
• Introduce package tours catering to different tourism segment and various target
tourist categories at a national level
• Partner with other countries to share tourism market segment that they can’t
offer, use them as advertisement medium to fill in the gap
• Partner/Advertise with airlines that carries passengers to/from India
• Introduce quality cruise packages connecting important port cities of mainland
India with Lakshadweep and Andaman

Following strategies can be adopted based on tourism category:

• Heritage tours:
– Make palatial hotels, historical residences of rich and famous available for accommodation
– Extend palace on wheels type of concepts across the country
• Nature tours:
– Review and provide amenities needed for quality hospitality services in existing nature
tourism spots
– Earmark locations that haven’t yet been ventured and develop them to provide quality nature
tourisms
• Religious tours:
– Introduce royal river cruise along with holy river Ganges and visit all temples along the way
– Sanitize existing monuments and nearby areas for tourists to appreciate the rituals and
monuments
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 Strategy ..contd.
• Medical:
– Establish programs with developing countries who are in need to economic medical facilities
– Globally publicise the benefits of alternate medication like Ayurveda, Unani and Yoga
– The government has removed visa restrictions on tourist visas that required a two-month gap
between consecutive visits for people from Gulf countries which is likely to boost medical tourism
– India is known in particular for heart surgery, hip resurfacing and other areas of advanced
medicine.
• Educational:
– Introduce professional courses in fields like Filmmaking, Animation that has showcased India’s
capability in the global market
– Have talks to introduce educational exchange programs with other countries
• Sports:
– Provide world class facilities while hosting international games
– Include tourism for participants as part of the sporting event program and advertise it.
– Also have tour package options for the spectators.
• Business:
– The tourism industry generally defines business tourism as trips that bring together groups for four
purposes commonly known as MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions)
– Review and introduce world class weekend getaways in and around cities having global business
travellers
– Come up with services and amenities in cities so that the business person can relocate their family
temporarily who needs to stay in India for longer duration

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 Competitors
• Heritage tours:
– European countries, can compete with them if quality of service is improved in India
– China, difficult to compete. Need to provide exclusive tourism services that China cant provide
• Nature tours:
– Almost every other country, but India has a distinctive advantage of diversified nature.
– From the Himalayas to oceans, from deserts to dense forests.
• Religious tours:
– Although dominated by Hindu religion, has a distinctive advantage of having almost all types of religious
establishments
– India has created its own competition in this space by not promoting or packing this as an area of tourism
• Medical:
– Developed countries for quality medical facilities but are expensive.
– South East Asian countries, but still the medical services provided in India are far more economical
– Yoga has already become a part of the culture in developed countries, typically promoted by either the NRIs
or sessions by Indian Yoga Gurus in their countries
• Educational:
– Developed countries for quality education but are expensive
– South East Asian countries, but India has supremacy as English as a teaching medium is more common in
India than other countries in this region
• Sports:
– Every developed and developing countries are competitors in this segment
– Apart from few high profile events that is running successfully in India, India has to lift up its quality of
services to remain in race
• Business:
– China, Brazil and other South East Asian countries. So far India has done a good job in providing good
infrastructure in important cities
– But to stay in race, India needs to focus on improving the level of professionalism in every aspect
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 Improving Credibility
In general India needs to pay attention to following areas:
• Security
– Indians should provide much needed space to international tourists and do anything and everything
to safeguard their dignity
– Cases of theft, abuse and sexual harassment needs to be dealt with very seriously
• Convenience
– Travel information should be transparent, accurate, updated and published in a wider forum so
that potential tourists can browse though it and take travel decisions without any doubt
– Maps, Directions, Instructions should be made available where ever possible, especially in and
around tourist destinations
– Ease of travel planning by providing streamlined services like transportation and accommodation
booking
– Quality travel and hospitality services, international cuisine and high quality traditional Indian
dishes
– Contact persons or interfacing hosts should have exposure to international culture

And following based on tourism category:

• Heritage tours:
– Defacing and scribbling nonsense on walls of historical monuments
– Have qualified well cultured guides whose certification is renewed periodically
• Nature tours:
– Ensure mechanisms to avoid littering in natural places
– Have nature conservation laws implemented and inspected periodically especially in nature tourism
areas
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 Improving Credibility ..contd.
• Religious tours:
– Have educated guides who can provide reasoning to various religious rituals to encourage cross
religion tourism
– Have rules to discourage frauds who introduces themselves as priests and dupe tourists by
charging them hefty amounts
• Medical:
– Ensure high quality standard of medical service while maintaining cost advantage for the medical
tourist patients
– Disqualify certificates of medical practitioners/institutes found indulging in malpractices to extract
money from tourist patients
• Educational:
– Have mechanism to ensure educational establishments maintains international standards
– Ban students or professors found indulging in polarizing or influencing others for non-educational
selfish purposes and spoiling the culture of the establishment
• Sports:
– Ensure games conducted are fare; games are played as per the rules and spirit of the game
– Maintain high standard of accommodation, sports establishments and transportation for players
– Find out innovative ways to discourage Indian spectators behave immaturely as the games are
telecasted live across the world and their actions directly brand image of India
• Business:
– Government office infrastructure in major cities needs to maintain a basic standard and
employees should be educated on basic professional etiquettes especially passport, police
stations, RTAs
– Citizens should provide necessary assistance to foreigners in need and not misguide or mislead
them for personal fun or gain
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 Conclusion
• With the Himalayas in the north; forests, lakes, deserts, rivers,
plateaus in the between and south bordered by oceans, India is
lucky to have rich flora and fauna
• With rich historical heritage left behind by the Aryans, through the
Maharajahs, Mughals, British and todays infrastructure that
competes with some of the best in the world
• With huge contribution towards science and technology in the past,
through high quality literature in the last century and high-end
technology services provided to the world today
• India is poised to become one of the most sought after nations in
the world and attract tourism, but each one of us “Indians” has to
live up to the expectations of each tourist and contribute towards a
better India.

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 References
• Credible India case study
• http://www.atithi.org.in
• http://www.incredibleindia.org
• http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1394
• http://www.ficci.com/ficci-in-news-page.asp?nid=5312
• http://forbesindia.com/article/independence-special-2012/credible-india/33618/1

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 Thank You

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