The 'Incredible India' campaign, launched in 2002, significantly promoted India as a high-end tourist destination, leading to a 16% increase in tourist traffic within its first year. Despite its success, critics argued that the campaign failed to address infrastructure issues and diverse attractions, suggesting that improvements in connectivity and services were more crucial for attracting tourists. Overall, the initiative established a distinctive identity for India in the tourism sector while facing ongoing challenges to fully leverage the country's vast potential.

1. Submitted by:
Shradha Diwan
08 BS 000 3170
IBS Kolkata
Business
Strategy - II
Submitted to:
Prof.
Debashish
Bramha

2. INTRODUCTION
The 'Incredible India'
campaign, launched in
2002, was a major
initiative by the
Government of India, to
promote India as a tourist
destination. The first
marketing initiative of its
kind, Incredible India was
conceptualized in 2002 by
V Sunil (while he was
Creative Director, O&M
Delhi), and Amitabh Kant,
Joint Secretary, Ministry of
Tourism. The primary objective of this branding exercise was to create a distinctive
identity for the country. This resulted in the iconic”Incredible !ndia” logo, where the
exclamation mark that formed the “I” of India was used to great effect across all
communications. The campaign successfully established India as a high-end tourist
destination, generating a 16% increase in tourist traffic in the first year.
According to spending data released by Visa Asia Pacific in March 2006, India emerged as
the fastest-growing market in the Asia-Pacific in terms of international tourist spending.
The data revealed that international tourists spent US$ 372 million in India in the fourth
quarter (October-December) of 2005, 25% more than in the
fourth quarter of 2004. China, which came second in the region,
was successful in making international tourists fork out US$ 784
million in Q4 2005, a growth of 23% over its Q4 2004 figures.
The tourist spe nding figures for India would have pleased the
Indian tourism ministry, which had been targeting the high-end
market through its long-running 'Incredible India'
communication campaign.
Also, the fact that India was able to earn around half of what China could, in spite of
attracting only a fraction of the number of tourists that its neighbor managed to lure,
indicated that the campaign had been successful in achieving its objective.

3. The ‘Incredible India’ campaign was an integrated marketing communication effort to
support the Indian tourism industry’s efforts to attract tourists to the country.
The campaign projected India as an attractive tourist destination by showcasing different
aspects of Indian culture and history like yoga, spirituality, etc. The campaign was
conducted globally and received appreciation from tourism industry observers and
travelers alike.
However, the campaign also came in for criticism from some quarters. Some observers felt
that it had failed to cover several aspects of India which would have been attractive to the
average tourist.
Others felt that it would have been better to build the necessary tourism infrastructure
before launching the marketing campaign, especially as, according to them, much of this
infrastructure was on the verge of falling apart. Still others were of the view that India was
not on the itinerary of millions of tourists not so much because the country was unable to
market itself, but more because of poor connectivity, exorbitant taxes, visa problems,
unsanitary conditions, and shortage of affordable, good quality accommodation. Some of
them even argued that the future of the Indian tourism industry depended more on solving
the infrastructure problems rather than on an extravagant communication campaign.

4. INCEPTION OF THE CAMPAIGN
Before 2002, the Indian government regularly formulated policies and prepared pamphlets
and brochures for the promotion of tourism; however, it did not support tourism in a
concerted fashion. As a result, the country attracted very few tourists.
A country like France, six times smaller than India, attracted around 20 times the number
of tourists that India managed to draw. That this was the case in spite of France not being
able to offer the sheer variety in terms of geography, cuisine, culture, and experiences that
India could, was perhaps an indication of the extent to which previous governmental
efforts to promote tourism had been unsuccessful. However, in 2002, the tourism ministry
made a conscious effort to bring in more professionalism in its attempts to promote
tourism. It formulated an integrated communication strategy with the aim of promoting
India as a destination of choice for the discerning traveler.
The tourism ministry engaged the services of Ogilvy & Mather (India) (O&M) to create a
new campaign to increase tourist inflows into the country. The 'Incredible Ind ia' campaign,
as it was called, was launched in 2002 with a series of television commercials and print
advertisements.

5. THE CAMPAIGN IN 2002/03
In the second year, the Incredible India campaign focused on spiritual tourism, resulting in
a 28.8% increase in tourist traffic and a no.1 ranking in the Travel+Leisure readers survey.
In 2003, Condé Nast Traveller
selected India as one of the top ten
preferred destinations for the
discerning traveller. “India’s results
are very exciting and show the
country’s increasing popularity
amongst sophisticated travellers. It
also reflects very positively on the
individuals involved in promoting
India as a premium tourist
destination.” Sarah Miller, Editor,
Condé Nast Traveller, 2003.
In January 2004, Lonely
Planet conducted a survey in
134 countries to select the
world’s favourite destination
for individual travellers. India
was ranked among the top
five favourite international
destinations in the global
survey (the other four were
Thailand, Italy, Australia and
New Zealand). According to
Lonely Planet, “the
respondent for the survey
was today’s independent
traveller – professional, with a degree or post-graduate qualification who is aged 25 to 34.”
The 2003/04 campaign went on to win many prestigious awards, including Gold at PATA
and the Bombay Ad Club.

6. THE CAMPAIGN IN 2006/07
After a break of one year, the original team of Incredible India collaborated again. In 2006,
Delhi based creative agency (A), founded by V Sunil, was called in to create the new global
campaign for 2006/07. The print and outdoor executions combined spectacular images
with a wry, self-assured tone – a far cry from the bowing and scraping of past campaigns.
The campaign went on to win the PATA Grand Award 2007 for
Marketing, and was one of only four ‘best of show’ Grand Awards
out of a total of 339 entries from 132 organizations.

8. THE CAMPAIGN IN 2007/08
The Colours of India campaign emphasized India’s diverse cultural spectrum. Featuring
breathtaking images and
colour-based headlines such
as Coffee Brown and Red
Hot, the campaign was
launched globally in 71
leading newspapers and
magazines. Using traditional
and interactive media -
print, outdoor and the
internet - India was
positioned as a unique and
vibrant destination for
tourists. This was the
second campaign developed
by Leena Nandan, Joint Secretary (Tourism) and V Sunil, Executive Creative Director,
Wieden+Kennedy Delhi.

9. THE CAMPAIGN IN 2008/09
The India Tourism 2008 campaign was based on the experiences of those who came to visit
India as tourists and stayed back to make India their home. It takes a special bond with the
country and its people to
give up everything you
know and set up home, take
roots in India. These are the
people who’ve truly
embraced the culture and
assimilated it into their
being. As opposed to those
who’ve simply being ‘bitten
by the India bug’. Staying
back is prompted by a
decision that will change
their lives forever. It is not
a mere whim or adventure.
It is the commitment of a
lifetime. There are several people like this in India and we went through a careful process
to select the ones who we felt could be ambassadors to our culture. The creative idea
employed a simple device that stated their country of birth, followed by text that said
‘Motherland: India’.

10. THE INTERNET STRATEGY
A robust Response mechanism was devised to create a dialogue with the users
contactus@tourismofindia.com was made popular through online campaign and
website.
With success of first online campaign and response mechanism, this has been adopted as
an ongoing strategy.
Subsequently many more campaigns have been launched and website has been revamped
to– www.incredibleindia.org.
DECEMBER 2002 TO MARCH 2003 – ONLINE CAMPAIGN
A robust Response mechanism was devised to create a dialogue with the users
– contactus@tourismofindia.com was made popular through online campaign
and website.
– With success of first online campaign and response mechanism, this has been
adopted as an ongoing strategy.
– Subsequently many more campaigns have been launched and website has
been revamped to– www.incredibleindia.org.
WEBSITE HITS
AUGUST 2004 TO MARCH 2005 – ONLINE CAMPAIGN
• A complete 360-degree approach.

11. • Innovative site captures, Road blocks and bigger size creatives.
• Mobile marketing
• DVD ad insert and digital brochure insert in ZDNet India’s Technology magazine.
• Direct marketing
– Incredible India post cards inserts along with tickets to all those who
purchased railways ticket from Indian railways website.
WEBSITE

12. APPLAUDS
Travel industry analysts and tour operators were appreciative of the high standards of the
'Incredible India' campaign. "The promo campaign is making a powerful visual impact and
creating a perception of India being a magical place to visit," said Anne Morgaon Scully,
President, McCabeBremer Travel, Virginia, USA. Average travelers too appeared to find the
campaign interesting and informative, going by the favorable comments on blogs on travel
websites.
CRITICISMS
Although the 'Incredible India' campaign was generally well received, industry observers
differed in their opinions on the positioning of India in the campaign. For example,
G.S.Murari, Director, Fidelis Advertising and Marketing Pvt. Ltd., said he was uncomfortable
with the tagline 'Incredible India'.
He was of the opinion that since India was not a uni-dimensional country like Singapore or
the Maldives, using a word like 'incredible' to describe India as a whole was not
appropriate. He argued that a single word could never describe a multi-faceted country like
India.
WHAT LIES AHEAD
In spite of the upward trend in tourist arrivals following the 'Incredible India' campaign,
the fact that India - the seventh largest country in the world in terms of area - received only
a fraction of the number of tourists that a city like Hong Kong received indicated the
enormous potential that still existed for tourism.
According to an article in the April 2005 issue of Newsweek International, unlike
traditional tourists who were content being passive spectators, modern tourists were
increasingly interested in engaging with the places they visited. The article listed volunteer
tourism, luxury and vacation home, travel seeking spirituality, private islands and air
cruises in private jets as the major emerging trends in the global tourism industry. Some of
these trends were visible even in India. For example, in March 2006, Thai Airways
announced a charter flight service from Bangkok, Thailand, to Varanasi, India, f or visitors
to India's Buddhist tourist circuit.

13. THANK YOU