Perception of Inbound Tour Operators of India Towards Marketing Strategies of Ministry of Tourism

Abstract

With the increase in travel frequency at global level, destinations compete with each other to attract tourists. The tourists have a vast array of destinations to choose from. The destinations compete at global as well as regional level. These developments in tourism bring forth the importance of marketing for a destination. The destination marketing is generally undertaken by destination marketing organizations (DMOs) which operate at national, regional as well as local level in a country. In context of India, MOT (Ministry of Tourism, Government of India) undertakes the role of a DMO and is responsible for formulation and implementation of marketing strategies to promote India as a destination at global level. Further, it is imperative to understand the perception of other stakeholder about the marketing strategies of MOT in order to recognize the effectiveness of its marketing efforts. Being co-creator of destination image, inbound tour operators are considered as the key stakeholders at the destination. The objective of this chapter is to understand the perception Indian inbound tour operators towards the marketing strategies carried out by MOT. The data for the study was collected through structured questionnaire. The findings of the study indicated that inbound tour operators perceived marketing plans adopted by Ministry of tourism were effective to position India as a tourist destination at global level. At planning stage of strategy making for promoting India as tourist destination, MOT does not seek the opinion of inbound tour operators. It is suggested that MOT should involve inbound tour operators for drawing the marketing strategies for India as they are key seller for the tourism product.