An exclusive Media Round Table with Gary Robson, Deputy Director for India, GCC & Europe, VisitBritain, and Ritu Varma, Country Manager India, VisitBritain, was held recently for select representatives of the Mumbai Travel Media at the Scarlett House, Bandra.
Shreya Shimpi
A group of select travel media representatives from Mumbai had the unique opportunity to engage directly with VisitBritain’s leadership as they shared their views on key tourism insights, strategies, key source markets, weddings, MICE and future developments.
In an exclusive chat with BOTT, Gary Robson said, “India is a hugely important market for Britain’s tourism industry, and we’re predicting strong growth forecast in both visits and spend in 2025. In terms of spend, we are forecasting record spend this year of nearly £1 billion (£900 million), up 15% vs 2024 estimate (& up 20% on 2019).We are forecasting 666,000 visits, up 8% on 2024 estimate. Our vision for 2030 is 1 million visits from India (+50% on 2025) and a spend £1.6 billion (+73% on 2025).
‘Strong’ and ‘growth’ are the two words that I would like to use to describe the performance of the India market this year. Our real focus in terms of campaign and theme is all around the campaign called ‘Starring GREAT Britain’. The campaign is based on movies and the locations that are filmed around the UK. Over ninety per cent of Indian visits are inspired by movies and we are really going to use that to get Indian travellers to visit those locations”.
Speaking about why should Indians choose Britain as their next preferred travel destination he remarked, “I know that Britain is quite popular in India for long-haul travel. We have diverse choices and great connectivity so I urge Indian travellers is to explore Britain by taking a flight to Manchester or some different part of UK and not just London to find a whole new world.”
Addressing the media, he added, “Our connection with India goes beyond tourism. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is here now which underscores the importance of India. It is the culture and the 1.6 million British Indians living there and that brings the two countries together. The growth potential in India is exceptional. Over the next two years, our focus will be on the ‘Starring GREAT Britain’ film location campaign which will help us drive visits around the whole of UK. Our focus is not only on the numbers but actually on the regions and growth. The top five source markets are USA, France, Germany, GCC and Northern Australia. India is among the top ten.There is also a growing interest in ‘Self-drive itineraries’. The wine tours and whiskey experiences are also worth exploring. Our newly launched campaign also blends well with weddings. MICE is also an interesting segment as the best part is the access which is extremely important for MICE with 172 flights a week flying to UK from India”.
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