A group of Cumbrian tourism businesses are heading to two of India’s largest cities next week (13-16 January 2020), to help make the most of the UK’s growing appeal to visitors from one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
The newly launched ‘English Lake District India Forum’ was recently set up by Cumbria Tourism to bring together businesses to collectively target the fast-growing Indian market. A number of those businesses have now joined together to represent the county on an overseas trade mission.
Tour operators are increasingly co-ordinating visits to key UK locations such as London and Edinburgh, and the aim of the mission is to further raise awareness of our county and ensure the Lake District, Cumbria, becomes a firm fixture on those itineraries.
VisitBritain’s trade mission will be the first trip of its kind involving such a large Lake District contingent and will include a series of face-to-face meetings, workshops and networking events with around 300 influential Indian travel agents and tour operators.
The Cumbrian delegation of thirteen businesses will be part of forty from the UK who are making the trip to Mumbai & Delhi, which accounts for more than 40% of outbound tourism businesses from India to Britain.
The full list heading to the Indian sub-continent includes:
- Armathwaite Hall Hotel & Spa
- Cumbria Tourism
- Gilpin Hotel & Lake House
- Grasmere Gingerbread®
- Langdale Hotel
- Lake District Country Hotels
- Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway
- Mountain Goat Tours & Lindeth Howe Hotel
- Pennington Hotels & Muncaster Castle
- Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway
- The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction™
- Ullswater ‘Steamers’
- Windermere Lake Cruises
Sales & Marketing Executive at Cumbria Tourism, Francine Bult, will be among those taking part in the Indian trade mission. She says, “India is a region of significant growth and offers some incredible opportunities to help grow our £3billion visitor economy, supporting all year-round tourism and dispersing people to all areas of the county. Cumbria Tourism’s renewed India-focus is a key international marketing priority and we are excited to be working with so many like-minded businesses to help forge even stronger links with overseas trade contacts and promote our region to potential visitors from the Indian sub-continent.”
The trade mission is just one part of a busy calendar of activity the English Lake District India Forum have planned for the coming months. Other upcoming plans include the release of a destination video for Indian travel trade, along with a series of targeted online developments and continued one-to-one meetings and networking sessions with top Indian travel contacts.
