Scottish tourism businesses will learn how to position Scotland as an ‘India Ready’ destination through a series of industry-led activities by the national tourism organisation.
VisitScotland representatives will meet with key tour operators, leading tourism industry figures and strategic partners at a roundtable event in Mumbai this week.
The forum has been organised by the tourism body and forms part of a five-day India Business Development Mission in partnership with Etihad Airways, taking in Mumbai, Chandigarh and Delhi.
VisitScotland is joined in India by seven industry partners for a series of trade and networking events across the country.
An India market seminar is also planned for VisitScotland Expo, Scotland's premier business to business travel trade event, held on 20 and 21 April in Edinburgh.
All events are set to explore and promote the potential and importance of this key emerging market to Scottish tourism businesses in a bid to get them ‘India Ready’.
Scotland’s appeal within India lies in its dramatic landscapes and natural beauty, its cities, whisky and golf. Film tourism is another key driver, with around 24 Bollywood movies having been filmed in Scotland and whose locations are featured a special online map, Bollywood Scotland, produced by VisitScotland last year.
India is the 14th largest international market for expenditure in Scotland and the ninth for number of nights, according to the latest international passenger figures.
In 2014, Indian visitors spent 474,000 nights in Scotland while over the past three years a third of all trips by visitors were for the purpose of a holiday and each spent an average of 19.1 nights per trip. Edinburgh is the third most visited city in the UK for Indian visitors, with Glasgow and Inverness also top destinations.
