India unveils tourism strategy

India is aiming to secure a 1% share of the world's tourist arrivals, having laid out a number of objectives expected to boost tourism.

Union tourism minister Shri Subodh Kant Sahai said, after a meeting of India's Tourism Advisory Council, that Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) to India during 2011 had jumped to 6.29 million from the 2010 figure of 5.78 million, an increase of 8.9%.

The global average growth rate is currently 4.4%, while in the first six months of this year India's figure has reached 7.8%.

The minister spoke of a number of plans in place to ensure the positive growth continues in the future: "We have recently appointed a creative agency to develop new strategies and campaigns for promoting tourism world-wide," he said.

"We will develop and launch market specific campaigns in different countries, as India has a wide variety of tourism products to offer to varying categories of travellers."