Download Indian tourism roadshow on Buddha`s trail

May 15, 2011
By Imtiaz Muqbil
Indian tourism roadshow on Buddha's trail
VietNamNet Bridge – An Indian tourism road show in HCM City on Wednesday invited Vietnamese to
"walk in the footsteps" of the Buddha but in the comfort of trains.
Incredible India brought together key players in India's hospitality industry, senior tourism officials, and
tour operators who saw great potential in the Vietnamese market.
Anand Kumar, joint secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, said Viet Nam was an emerging market for
India.Vietnamese tourists can help promote understanding between the two countries given that
Indians can also know more about Vietnamese, he added.
Indian Buddhist scholar Shantum Seth said the arrival of Buddhist pilgrims from Viet Nam and other
countries can help revive the religion in his country.The value of a pilgrimage to India is that pilgrims
can get an insight into Buddhism in the context in which the faith was born and developed, he said.
"It's like you walk with the Buddha," he said.
"When pilgrims visit Lumbini (where the Buddha was born), the chances are that they can see old,
sick and dead men and monks just exactly like the Buddha did before he decided to leave in search of
enlightenment. "I myself have seen such sights," he said, explaining that life around Lumbini has not
changed much in the last 2,500 years.
Pilgrims
In the ancient town of Varanasi, pilgrims can still witness rituals on the Ganges River which made the
Buddha look for other ways to relieve human grief, he said. Although the original bodhi tree in Bodhi
Gaya under which the Buddha meditated to attain enlightenment is no longer there, another bodhi
tree grows in the same spot.
"It is just like the revival of Buddhism after many centuries after it fell into oblivion in the subcontinent," he explained. "The branches of the tree represent Buddhist branches in many countries."
With one of the most extensive railways in the world that covers more than 64,000km and operate
more than 15,000 trains a day, India has great potential for developing train tours, according to
Rakesh Tandon, managing director of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation.
The company has launched several luxury theme trains for tourists that criss-cross the country – like
the Palace on Wheels, Royal Rajasthan, Maharaja Express, Golden Chariot, Deccan Odyssey,
Southern Splendour and Royal Golden Triangle – he said.
The Mahaparinirvan Express, a Buddhist circuit train, has a package for Buddhists that includes prime
Buddhist spots like Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, Varanasi, Nalanda and Kushinagar."The trains
have attracted tourists from more than 30 countries in the last four years," he said, noting that many of
them were from non-Buddhist countries like the US, Germany, Russia, Indonesia, Canada, Brazil,
Argentina, Mexico and Australia.
Arjun Sharma, senior vice president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, said India has every
element that makes up a tourist paradise: sea, sun, snow, sand, mountains, flora and fauna, rivers
and monuments.The country has more than 15,000 historical sites, 28 world heritage sites, 7,600km
of coastline, colourful festivals like the snake boat race of Kerala, and desert festival of Jaisalmer, he
said. India's reputation as a destination rests on its incredible cultural heritage, mythology, warmth
and hospitality, nature and landscapes, forts and palaces, music and dance, yoga and films, he said.
One-horned rhinos in Kaziranga, elephant herds in Bandipur, lions in Gir, and tigers in the
Sunderbans are among the exotic wildlife that will enthrall visitors, he added. Vietnam is among a
handful of countries whose citizens to India can get visas on arrival, Kumar said."Visa regulations will
be eased further," he promised
10 May, 2011
Buddhist Scholar’s Point-Blank Pitch: Visit India to Walk the Talk
IMTIAZ MUQBIL
BANGKOK – An eminent Buddhist scholar accompanying an Indian tourism promotion
delegation has called on the millions of Buddhists in Thailand and worldwide to visit India
both to encourage the revival of Buddhism in the Hindu-majority country as well as to retrace
the Buddha’s footsteps to gain a more personal experience of his teachings.
The point-blank appeal was made by Mr. Shantum Seth, a prominent member of a 19-strong
Indian delegation during a May 9-13 roadshow of Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Addressing a packed hall of invited Thai travel agents after a visit earlier in the day to the
Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the Thai capital’s most visited tourist
attractions, Mr Seth said he could feel an immediate connection to the people of Thailand and
the atmosphere he experienced. “With the devotion that people have, you must visit these
places (the Buddhist sites in India). If you die without visiting these places, you will have
missed something very important in your life. It’s like going on the Hajj.”
Led by Mr. Anand Kumar, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, the Indian tourism
delegation also included Mr. Rakesh Tandon, managing director of the Indian Railway
Catering & Tourism Corporation, Mr. Arjun Sharma, Senior Vice President of the Indian
Association of Tour Operators and 16 other delegates, representing the private sector and
some Indian states. In Thailand, the roadshow attracted one of the largest such turnouts ever
seen by this editor at an outbound travel promotion.
Outbound travel from Thailand is on the rise, thanks to the strength of the Thai baht, a huge
increase in airline seat capacity and stepped up marketing efforts by foreign NTOs and
airlines. Buddhism being a common religious thread that binds all three countries, the Indians
opted to use this heritage link as a primary marketing pitch to attract a long-staying, highspending captive market. If it produces the desired results, the roadshow will give a huge
impetus to global religious travel and raise it to a new level beyond the current health-andwellness fad.
First Indian Roadshow to Cambodia, Vietnam
Although Indian tourism promotion events are regularly held in Thailand, this was first
Indian roadshow to Vietnam and Cambodia, which are now on the list of 11 countries
(Singapore, Finland, New Zealand, Luxembourg, Japan, Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippine,
Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia) whose citizens can now get an Indian visa on arrival. Although
Thais don’t get a VoA, Thailand was included in the inaugural promotional trip because of
the nearly 140 weekly flights between Thailand-India. This is generating roughly 800,000
Indians visitors to Thailand every year but only 70,000 Thai visitors for India. The Indians
felt the time is right to try to narrow this gap.
According to Mr. Kumar, “India sees immense potential in the ASEAN source markets due to
geographical proximity, age-old ties and Buddhist affinity. Due to India’s strong and vibrant
economy and an increasingly favourable business climate, India has established a firm place
on the world map. Tourism is growing at a rate of around 10% an the country has become a
preferred business, leisure, adventure and spiritual destination.”
The Buddhist market is considered the easiest to tap — a clearly-demarcated sector and wellsuited to global demographic trends, especially the rapidly-growing elderly segment of the
population.
Mr. Seth said Buddhism originated in India and then spread across Southeast Asia as
Gautama Buddha over the span of 45 years preached his message of peace, compassion and
the Noble Eightfold Path as the antidote to suffering to everyone from beggars to kings. India
lost Buddhism in the 13th century but if Thais can start visiting the Buddhist spots now, they
can contribute to a revival of the religion in India, he said. “The teachings come alive to you.
They make sense and gain relevance in the modern context,” he added, noting that that the
Buddha himself had told his followers and disciples to visit the places where he was born,
attained enlightenment, meditated, preached and died.
Mr Seth also called on the Thai travel agents to send their guests to other historic places such
as the Hindu holy city of Varanasi (Benares), so that they may understand the origins of
Buddhism. He said they will find many of the spots exactly the same as they were. “Not
much of India has changed over the years,” Mr. Seth said, urging them to travel as a “Sangha,
a committee of practitioners” and undertake the pilgrimage as “both an inner and outer
journey.”
Mr. Seth was followed by Mr. Tandon who gave a video presentation of the
Mahaparinirvan Express, the eight-day special train journey through the Buddhist spots.
A total of 16 fixed-date departures are planned between 17 September 2011 to 01 May 2012.
Mr. Arun Srivastava, Joint General Manager (Tourism), ICRTC, said that nearly 50% of the
train’s clients are up-market Thais. He said all the trips combined have a seat capacity of
about 3,000 with an occupancy of about 2,000. Of that, he said, half are Thais. In March
alone, a group of 400 had come from Thailand, requiring the train to add a number of extra
coaches for the one-week trip.
The entertainment that followed the presentations also bore a Buddhist theme with a series of
dances depicting tales of various spirits and demons in Buddhist mythology. Said Mr. Bansri
Kaul, the show director, “We chose these dances from Ladakh, the last Mahayana Buddhist
monasteries in India, because they reflected the internal energy of India. It was not one of the
animated and high-power performances that one normally sees at Indian performances. We
thought it would be good to do something different.”
One delegation member said it was also important as part of India’s “inclusive development”
policies to give cultural troupes from the more remote parts of India a chance to travel
abroad. Indeed, many of the troupe members had facial features distinctly like those of the
hilltribes people of Thailand and the Mekong Region, and wore remarkably similar costumes
too. Although a brochure explaining each dance was deposited on the chairs, it was all in
English. As there was no Thai explanation, many of the non-English speaking audience were
visibly disinterested. The Indians recognised the apparent boredom, and promised to fix the
problem at the next stop, Vietnam.
The Key Reason
In his presentation, Mr. Sharma urged Thai agents to work only with IATO-registered
membership agents in order to avoid being taken for a ride by the many fly-by-night
operators who have joined the Indian tourism bandwagon, thanks to what he called the
relatively relaxed government licensing procedures. His presentation balanced the Buddhist
focus by highlighting the many other facets of India – off-season tourism, voluntourism,
adventure tourism and even an opportunity to meet with India’s former royal families at the
many palace hotels in the country. For the many foreign-educated Thais with a fondness for
skiing, he pitched India as the “nearest short-haul winter holiday”. He also noted that with the
low-cost airlines having put in a deluge of capacity on the Thailand-India route (about 140
flights a week), the time was right to start filling seats in both directions.
Asked in an interview why India had chosen Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City, Mr Sharma
said, “The key reason is that the visa on arrival for both Vietnam and Cambodia is in place.
This part of the ASEAN region has been neglected by tourism India. The focus has been
mainly on Buddhist tourism, and while we are continuing to pursue that, we are also offering
other products of India. My own company (Le Passage to India) has recently handled some
very high-end travellers from both countries. They are small groups of delegations and
families but they are buying luxury products. That clearly shows the future potential.”
MICE and sports tourism would also be a big winner, he said, especially an upcoming
Formula 1 racing spectacular in New Delhi. “The Indian government now realises the need to
diversify the portfolio of tourism products and sports tourism will be one of the key products
going forward,” Mr Sharma said.
Mr Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, the Indian Ambassador to Thailand, said that Thailand and
India share long cultural and heritage links, noting that the name of Thailand’s King
Bhumibhol Adulyadej came directly from its Sanskrit origin, as did Suvarnabhumi, the name
of Bangkok’s international airport. He acknowledged calls for Thailand to be included on the
list of visa-on-arrival countries but noted that the number of countries would be expanded as
more infrastructure began to be put into place to manage its growth. He said Thai companies,
especially construction firms, were active in India’s infrastructure development, with one
local conglomerate Italthai Corporation, building a new airport at Kolkata. Total bilateral
trade is now almost 7 billion dollars, and growing.