29 July,2009 08:44 AM IST | | A Correspondent
The idea that India could be a sporting destination for tourists might sound a bit illogical to many, but there are some who believe it is a huge market still untapped.
Hence Eurosport, Europe's biggest sports channel is broadcasting 'Eurotrip' a programme that highlights how tourists could come to India for a sports-specific tour and also get an opportunity to see the various facets of the country.
The idea came about due to a lot of different factors.
Merzban Patel, CEO, Mediascope Publicitas India felt strongly that Europe's sporting culture would be interested in the different Indian sports while many at Eurosport felt that a country with such a huge population would certainly have a great sporting culture that needs to be exposed to Europe. Sujit Banerjee, secretary, Ministry of Tourism, also advised Eurosport that India's varied sports could certainly be well received by those in Europe.
"In Europe, people love sports. Hence even rural Indian sports would fascinate them, as it is something new to them. Of course, there are also the regular sports that are a hit with them. So we went to the Ministry of Tourism and they immediately accepted the idea," Patel said. Though the structure in terms of planned tours will take time to materialise, Banerjee believes exposing Europe to Indian sports will help increase tourists.
"The idea is to give the tourist in the sportsman or the sportsman in the tourist a chance to see what India can offer to them. From golf, polo, scuba diving, skiing, cricket, and a lot of other sports to even our rural sports.
There are so many avenues for them to explore that we are certain we will see many coming to India with sports in mind," Banerjee said.
