The famous 'Incredible India' campaign, an Indian government initiative, has won the World Travel Award for being the best campaign of the year 2009 at a gala function in London on November 8, 2009. The award was presented to India's Tourism Minister, Kumari Selja by the reigning Miss World, Ksenia Kukhinova of Russia at the Grosvenor House. The Indian minister is in London to participate in the World Travel Market. She was also honored with the Asian Guild Award for promoting the 'Incredible India' campaign at a function held at the House of Lords. Lord Peter Archer of Sandwell presented this Award to her.
Kumari Shelja said that ‘Incredible India’ initiative was conceived in the year 2002, when they decided to brand the country as a unique, vibrant and inclusive identity. She stated that the campaign was an attempt to create a distinct image for the country. She further stated that the campaign had positioned the country in the mind of the discerning traveler and thus played a major role in the growth of tourist arrivals to the country as well as foreign exchange earnings from tourism. Shelja said that the campaign was successful in generating awareness about India among the younger generations.
Apart from creating a world market for Indian tourism, the campaign has come up as a sense of pride among Indian communities living in foreign countries, including UK. The minister said that India was also working to improve the facilities and services at important tourism destinations. On the point of making India as the leading tourism destination in the world, she said that they had taken several initiatives to develop new tourism products such as wellness, adventure and rural tourism, each of which would be quite an enriching experience for the tourist visiting the country.
