Realising that adverse publicity generated by reports of sexual assaults on foreign tourists could impact the inflow of visitors, the Government is planning to rope in public relation agencies as a part of its brand building exercise.
To begin with, the Union Tourism Ministry has sought expression of interest from the reputed PR agencies for its UK office to help counter India's negative image there. In 2013, london had issued a travel advisory against India, warning its citizens to be cautious while touring the country in the wake of a series of rape cases.
“India is going through major challenges, especially in the UK markets in view of the negative publicity related to safety and security of tourists over the past two years. There is a need to focus on image building by stepping up PR activities and engaging more frequently with the media,” said a senior Tourism Ministry official.
Pointing out that India received more than eight lakh tourists from the UK in 2013, the official aid that this is meager given that around 5.8 crore UK tourists travel outbound to different destinations including long-haul destinations. “We are keen to achieve at least a 30 per cent increase in the tourist traffic to India from the UK,” the official added.
Besides, the UK, Ireland and Iceland are one of the most important tourism markets for India. To achieve this, there is a need to counter all such negative media coverage through regular liaison with the media and communications to the key media by way of press briefings, press releases, etc.
The agency will have to "establish India as a round the year destination and positioning India Tourism as a preferred tourism brand in the markets of the UK and advising the office on the various strategies required for this," he added.
Also, it will ensure selling India in the UK by taking PR measures such as analysing requests for media trips received from journalists and processing them as per Ministry of Tourism rules for hospitality, regularly interacting with bloggers for stories about India, ensuring minimum of 2,000 likes and 100 tweets per six months .
An independent travel report World Travel & Tourism Council, India Initiative (WTTCII) in its study last year too had touched upon the cases of violence against women saying that such incidents have tarnished the country's image and recommended strong steps to tackle the problem. The report — that was submitted to the Tourism Ministry said, "India tourism is facing immense negative publicity from the international media on reoccurring incidents of rape/molestation cases against women foreign tourists."
The report has suggested a two pronged strategy to counter safety and security threats and negative publicity to be implemented by both Government of India and by the Tourism Ministry.
"The strategy should be developed by the Tourism Ministry in conjunction with the Ministries of Home Affairs, External Affairs and I&B. This includes ensuring speedy trials, sensitisation of stakeholders especially the State Government and law and order apparatus and evolving a strategy to tackle the negative publicity," it said.