Now, Britain turns into hotspot for Indian tourists

Almost half of all Indian visitors are coming from smaller cities

Britain has become the favourite haunt of Indian tourists, who spend more money here than visitors from the US, according to latest industry estimate.

Indian visitor numbers rose from 205,000 to 367,000 in 2006 and are expected to increase at a greater rate. The average spend by an Indian tourist is 793 pounds, compared with 710 pounds by an American tourist.

Last year, VisitBritain, a government agency, issued a tourist map of sites featured in Bollywood films to coincide with the International Indian Film Academy Awards ceremony which was held in Yorkshire. According to travel agent Cox & Kings, nearly half of all Indian visitors to Britain now came from smaller cities such as Pune, Ahmedabad, Indore, Jalandhar, Hissar, Nagpur, Coimbatore and Madurai.

There has been a three-fold increase in the number of Indian tourists holidaying in Britain over the past decade, says VisitBritain.  Elliott Frisby, a spokesman for VisitBritain, said that the number of Indian visitors had grown by about 170 per cent between 1993 and 2007. In ten years’ time, if the growth rates stay the same, this could be one of our biggest markets.

The giant Swaminarayan temple in Neasden, London, has become one of the favourite tourism hotspots, mainly due to the tourists from India. British tourism authorities are spending more funds on advertising, marketing and campaigning in India. Next year, Indian cricket fans will be encouraged to visit London for the first staging of the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup.

James Bidwell, chief executive of Visit London, said: Indians are growing significantly as sophisticated middle-class travellers. The historical connections with London are good and they have less restrictions on their visas than the Chinese. There are now great air connections, with 100 flights a week into London.