After two years of pandemic Covid-19, Visit Iceland is back in India with huge promotional activities, and aiming to receive an impressive number of outbound travellers from one of the most potential markets in Asia.
Officials of the Visit Iceland are endeavouring to enhance the number of travellers which came down drastically in the last two years due to the pandemic. Taking a step forward in this direction a delegation from Iceland interacted with media and trade fraternity in Delhi and Mumbai recently.
While interacting with media, H.E. Gudni Bragason, Ambassador to New Delhi says, “As India is the first major Asian market to open after Covid, it is most important for us to tap its potential. Travel had almost stopped during the pandemic, but now we are hoping for a swift revival.”
Elaborating upon the offerings of Iceland Gudni said that Iceland has a lot to offer for Indians as the nature is strikingly different from anything one can experience in India. There are breath-taking Glaciers, Northern Lights, Clean Air and Geothermal heated pools. Besides, Icelandic food is known for its freshness and can easily be adapted to Indian palette.
“Through this Roadshow and interactions, our aim is to further promote our destination and interact with the travel agencies in India and present them with opportunities of selling Iceland while understanding the obstacles they face in doing so,” added Bragason.
Thorleifur Thor Johnson, Senior Manager, Trade Delegations – Business, Visit Iceland says, “Indian outbound traveller is on a lookout for fresh and unexplored destinations, which is where Iceland fits in perfectly.”
“In 2019, 19,852 Indians visited Iceland, which was a steady increase from 10,944 in 2017. However, these numbers came down drastically in the last two years due to the pandemic and now Iceland is back in India to work on these numbers as believe India a potential source market for its tourism,” informed Johnson.
As Visa remains a concern this holiday season for European & Schengen Countries, elaborating on this Kristín Anna Tryggvadóttir, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Iceland in New Delhi said,”We received high number of Iceland visa applications and I understand and appreciate the importance of India tourism and we are working hard to resolve this.”
Tourism is the fastest growing connection between India and Iceland.There is a fast-growing interest of Indian travellers to visit Iceland to experience its natural beauty and of course the Northern lights said Deepika Sachdev, Advisor for Tourism, Culture & Public Diplomacy, Embassy of Iceland in New Delhi.
“Indian travellers are not afraid to brave extreme cold weather as a survey revealed a 34 per cent growth in Indian travellers wanting to visit Iceland. Thus, there has been a rapid increase in the number of tourists from India over the past four years.”
At the Embassy it is our constant endeavour to promote Iceland as an exotic tourist destination for Indian travellers. Iceland is on the bucket list of many people and it is an excellent location to witness Northern lights and its picturesque landscape, she added.”
