By Chathuri Dissanayake in Assam, India

India has initiated talks with the Sri Lankan Government to develop policies to promote multi-destination packages to potential tourists which include the country as a destination, a top Indian official said yesterday.

Speaking to Daily FT on the sidelines of the Sixth Global International Tourism Mart held in Assam India, Indian Tourism Ministry Secretary Rashmi Verma said that the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was already in discussion with the Sri Lankan Government to develop a proper policy on the matter.

“The dialogue is on and it is proceeding very well,” she said.

“We want to encourage people who come to Sri Lanka to visit India as well. They can visit neighbouring states in India or even fly to far-flung places like Northeast India. So we need to explore how we have packages which are encouraging people from the rest of the world to visit both countries.”

Further, India is also aiming to promote the destination to Sri Lankan travellers based on thematic tours, such as the Buddhist circuit and Ayurvedic Wellness packages.

“It is a two-way process. There is a lot of interest in India to visit Sri Lanka. We are hoping to generate similar interest,” she said. Indian tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka are only second to Chinese visitors.

She also spoke of promoting tourism within the region to encourage tourists from the neighbouring nations to engage in travelling within the region.

Taking popular European destinations as an example, Verma stated that the majority of visitors were from the same region.

“If you look at some of the top countries in the tourism industry, they are hugely dependent on regional tourism. If you look at Turkey then their tourists are mostly European. But in this region we have not capitalised on that and we ourselves create a very big market, and we should try to create inter-country packages within the region. We have a lot of affinities culturally as well so we should work on it together to get the maximum out of it,” she said.

However, India is yet to grant a visa-on-arrival facility to many of the countries in the region. Verma said that although granting visa-on-arrival was under consideration right now, only Japanese nationals are provided with the facility at present.

As part of their aggressive tourism promotion strategy, India is also looking at partnering the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries to promote multi-destination packages to include India.

“We are celebrating our association with ASEAN and MEA is taking a lot of initiative. There is a conclave happening and there is another INDO-ASEAN summit which is happening in February. As part of that whole initiative, people-to-people ties are also being promoted along with a number of other initiatives such as inter-country tours. Better connectivity is another thing we are still looking at to get flights flying in this region and creating awareness,” she explained.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs is looking at opening land and rail routes in a bid to improve tourism as well, Verma revealed, with the aim of receiving a “substantial number of tourists in ASEAN” in the coming years.

Source : http://www.ft.lk/front-page/India-aiming-to-develop-tourism-through-inter-country-packages-with-Sri-Lanka/44-644875