During a recent Scottish Marketing Association presentation on Scotland’s international image, Judy Torrence, Head of International Image for Scotland’s Government, was asked which country branding campaigns currently had her attention.

Incredible India was one of the campaigns she cited.

On the surface, India may seem an unlikely competitor to Scotland, particularly when contrasted with New Zealand, one of the more obvious contenders. However, in my view there are striking parallels between the strategies of the two countries.

Tourism parallels of India and Scotland

Just like Scotland (which aims to increase tourism revenues 50% by 2015), India has set itself aggressive tourism growth targets. As this article reports, India’s government has set itself the target of 10 million tourists in 2010, which it believes the 2010 Commonwealth Games will help achieve.

India’s total tourist flow was 2.38 million in 2002, 3.92 million in 2005, while in 2006 the figure rose to 4.43 million. Scotland, of course, is a mature market (16 million tourists took overnight trips in 2006), whereas India is starting from a low base, so it is no surprise Scotland’s targets relate to uplifting spend whereas India’s relate to increasing footfall.

Both Scotland and India have a substantial, influential and global Diaspora and both are developing strategies to engage with that Diaspora. Not only that, the Diaspora of similar sizes (20 million for India and by our recent count around 18 million for Scotland) and in some common countries, such as Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Caribbean and of course, England.

India formed its High Level Committee on Indian Diaspora in September 2000 in recognition of the need to develop the significant roles the Diaspora plays as investor, customer, supplier, ambassador and philanthropist. (More on this strategy can be found in this report by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.)

Both countries are implementing strategies to improve standards on the ground. Scotland has Pride and Passion and the 100k Welcomes customer experience training programme, whereas India has the Atithi Devo Bhavah programme, a Social Awareness Campaign aimed at providing the inbound tourist a sense of being welcomed to the country.

As the Minister of State for Tourism states on the official site “‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’ is a nationwide campaign aimed at sensitising people about India’s rich cultural heritage, its preservation, cleanliness, hospitality and bringing out an attitudinal shift among the masses towards tourists. It is a symbolic representation of India’s age old hospitality and with this campaign, we are trying to re-install in the stakeholders a sense of pride and responsibility towards tourists, while positioning India as a popular tourist destination worldwide.”

These are sentiments that I think Scotland’s Pride and Passion would absolutely recognise too.

So, given the parallels between the tourism strategies of Scotland and India, despite their different market maturities, perhaps it is no wonder Incredible India is on Judy Torrence’s radar. However, another reason must surely be the innovativeness and success of the Incredible India marketing campaign itself.

Incredible India marketing in action

One of the challenges of the Incredible India campaign (one also familiar to those marketing tourism in Scotland) is that many images associated with the country and brand are rooted in tradition and the past. The Diaspora particularly is likely to have memories and perceptions of India that are dated due to their prolonged absence from the country.

So India has taken a very modern, often online approach in its marketing. Just last month, Secretary of India’s Ministry of Tourism, Mr Shilabhadra Banerjee, launched an India Brand Channel on YouTube to help communicate the wonders of India to a worldwide audience. It is also well ahead of many destinations in its use of online social media. (You can read more about this in this blog post by Jens Thraehart: Tourism India on YouTube or read our newly released report for An Introduction To Online Social Networks).

Given the ambition and success to date of India and the parallels between two these two Diaspora countries, the Incredible India campaign is certainly one to watch – and in terms of Diaspora engagement strategy, India may also be one of the more relevant benchmarks for Scotland’s own endeavours.