Comments
In order to promote golf tourism in the country, the Ministry of Tourism on Monday announced the launch of the first-ever Incredible India Golf Tourism Summit in New Delhi from October 8 to October 10, 2014, in association with India Golf Tourism Association and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).
The summit aims to invite buyers and sellers of golf tourism overseas and get them interested in India opportunities.
“Countries like Japan and Hong Kong have shortage of golf courses and golfers of these nations can come to India and play at a comparatively low cost. We need to be tapping into this sector. The Ministry is not here to fund golf tournaments, but to help attract people from abroad, which is a net addition to the Indian economy,” Parvez Dewan, Secretary Tourism, Government of India, said.
Golf tourism is growing at 9.3 per cent a year and about 1.6 million people travel for golf tourism every year. Hence, there is a huge opportunity and scope to promote golf tourism in India.
“India has 200 golf courses in all. About 30 of them are of a level where you can play professionally, and 15 are signature golf courses,” Dewan added.
The highlight of the summit would be 12 hours of structured, pre-scheduled B2B meetings between hosted industry handpicked leading foreign tour operators from across 30 countries who specialise in golf tourism with the stakeholders of this niche area from India.
“Only 5 per cent of golfers travel internationally. They go to places like Turkey, Spain, and now Abu Dhabi and Cambodia. Media plays a big role, because without the knowledge of where to play, how to get there, facilities available, it becomes very difficult for golfers to decide,” Anil Dev, Editor-in-chief and Publisher, GolfPlus, said.
Meanwhile, Dewan added that the visa norms for Indians going to Japan, and Koreans coming to India are easing. Also, Maldivians coming to India for medical tourism can now travel visa free for up to 90 days, he said.
The two-day summit will culminate in an Incredible India Golf Tourism Award and Incredible India Golf Tournament.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.