And you thought brand ambassadors are used only to promote products and services. Check out this, Amitabh Bachchan was signed in as a brand ambassador to promote the State of Uttar Pradesh in October 2003. And then in February 2004, the State of Karnataka followed up and signed in Rahul Dravid and singer Vasundra Das to promote their State to international as well as domestic tourists. Tourism marketing and advertising in India is entering a new phase with a majority of States looking to tap international as well as domestic tourism traffic to boost their respective economies.

Travel and tourism is the second highest foreign exchange earner for India. Though inbound tourism definitely is of high priority today the states also want to tap the potential of domestic tourism. According to estimates domestic tourism is expected to generate revenue worth Rs. 600 bn. Contrast this with the inbound tourism spending, which is estimated at approximately Rs. 170 bn with approximately 2.2 million foreign tourists visiting India in 2002. However, experts in this industry still feel that Indian states are yet to tap the potential of domestic tourism. According to international standards the ratio between domestic and international tourism is approximately 10:1 whereas, in India it is only approximately equal to 3: 1.

Moreover, according to a study1 by Pannell Kerr Forster Consultants, globally 50% of domestic travelers go out of home for holidays whereas 35% of them move out to meet their friends and relatives. This study goes ahead to provide an estimate for Indian domestic tourism. According to their study, travel to meet friends and relatives dominates the domestic tourism scenario at approximately 31.5%, whereas leisure domestic tourism is still very low at 13.8%. As against the expectations only 6.9% of domestic tourism is related to spiritual or religious tourism whereas 10.4% of people travel for business purposes. India is yet to tap the potential of domestic leisure tourism.