Indian Minister of State for Tourism Sultan Ahmed, left, with Salah Al-Bukayyet, deputy secretary-general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, in Riyadh recently.

Saudi Arabia and India have set out a new strategy that will boost relationships in the tourism sector. India will aim to offer cost-effective health facilities and tailor-made tourism packages. A roadshow to promote India’s alternative medicines and traditional tourist spots demonstrated the Indian government and its travel and tourism operators are serious about promoting the country to Gulf countries, especially the Kingdom.

“India’s amazing diversity offers you everything you could ever want in a holiday,” said Minister of State for Tourism Sultan Ahmed, who wrapped up his visit to several countries in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia last week. Ahmed said despite the economic downturn, the number of foreign tourists that visited India in 2008 had grown by a fifth. He said 26,000 out of 250,000 tourists from the six Gulf states were Saudis. The trends for 2009 were also very encouraging, he added.

He was speaking at a high-profile tourism event at the Sheraton Hotel in Riyadh recently, attended by a large number of travel and tourism operators, travel executives and top Indian officials including Indian Ambassador M.O.H Farook.

“We are going into wellness in a big way and are trying to educate tourists, especially those in the Gulf countries,” said Ahmed. He added that India has the best hospitals, weather and doctors as well as focusing on various types of alternative medicine including spa and ayurveda. “What travel agents want to focus on is not just Indian tourists going abroad but also visitors from the Middle East coming to India for wellness, rather than going to the US or the UK where the cost is 10 times higher,” he added.

Ahmed said the department was promoting traditional tourists areas such as the Rajasthan belt, Kerala Coast and Goa, among others. He also pointed out that the UAE-based regional office of Incredible India has intensified efforts to educate people in the Gulf about Indian tourism.

Ahmed was confident there would be an increase in the number of visitors to India. Some of the participants at the roadshow pointed out the difficulty in getting visas, with the minister agreeing to look into the issues.

Several new tourism projects have also been announced in India, such as the Indian Maharaja-Deccan Odyssey, the country’s first privately operated luxury train, which will be launched by Travel Corporation (India) on Nov. 18. The train will run from Mumbai to Delhi, taking in the cities of Aurangabad, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Sawai Madhopur, Jaipur, Bharatpur, and Agra.

When asked about what the Indian government was doing to address a shortage of hotel rooms in India, Ahmed said a large number of smaller places offering accommodation have been established. He said the entire country only has about 130,000 rooms in branded hotels - around 10,000 less than Las Vegas. And with thousands of visitors expected to visit Delhi for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, this shortage may become especially severe.

“A number of families however are offering paying guest facilities and there is no dearth of rooms in four-star and smaller hotels in our metro cities,” said Ahmed. India’s Tourism Ministry has allowed homeowners to register their homes as bed-and-breakfasts, with nearly 300 in Delhi already offering accommodation.

Major tourist attractions in India include Dharamsala, which boasts a large number of Buddhist monasteries and the quaint hill station of Munnar in Kerala. A tourist can also visit the charming cities of Dehradun, Hyderabad, Mussoorie, Darjeeling and the beautiful little hill station of Khandala, located en route Mumbai to Pune in Maharashtra state of India. Kerala Tree Houses and Ayurveda Spas are other attractions, besides Cauvery Fishing Camp. In northern India, the great Taj Mahal in Agra city is a must-see, as well as the historical Jama Masjid, Lal Quila, and Qutub Minar in Delhi, besides a number of historical places and natural attractions in the Indian provinces of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.