With its seventh annual sales mission this year, Brand USA visit India mission was the biggest in strength with 64 delegates from 42 US tourism organisations in three cities – Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

WITH ITS seventh annual sales mission to India, Brand USA aimed at increasing the number of India residents to choose the United States as their next travel destination and educating the India travel industry about the endless travel opportunities available to their clients.

The sales mission started from September 23-28, was a platform for U.S. destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and suppliers to interact directly with tour operators, airline representatives, travel agents, meetings, incentives, conventions, and expositions (MICE) buyers and media.

The India visit this year was the biggest in strength with 64 delegates from 42 US tourism organisations in three cities – Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

With the US and Indian governments jointly declaring the year 2017 as a “U.S. and India Travel and Tourism Partnership Year” to promote bilateral tourism, this year, Chris Thompson, Brand USA’s President & Chief Executive Officer, announced campaigns that feature music and culinary themes to promote US-bound travel, and offer opportunities that allow partners to extend their marketing reach into specific global markets. “Music is a natural way to explore the diversity of the US,” he said. Music is a major platform and an inspiration for people to explore the United States. And music is what sticks with you. You remember the sound tracks of your youth or that song you heard on the radio on that driving trip you took,” he said.

The tourism potential of New Age India is huge and Brand USA’s endeavour is to continue promoting the unparalleled tourism offerings to this stratum of discerning travellers. “India, a growing source market for U.S. travel, is a country with more than 50 million passport holders and that number is expected to increase. Brand USA is thrilled that visitation by Indian travellers to the United States continues to grow each year. With 1.17 million visitors in 2016 who spent USD 13.6 billion, India was the 11th highest ranked country by arrival numbers,” he said. “In visitor spending, however, India ranked sixth, higher than several countries with greater arrival numbers to the U.S.  The annual India mission continues to be a major initiative for enhancing visitation from India,” he said.

The U.S. is aiming to attract around two million visitors from India in 2018 as it undertakes a number of initiatives to promote the country as a preferred destination.