Indian tour operators need to learn Chinese soon

Panaji, Oct 14 (IANS) With China likely to become the nation sending out the maximum number of tourists, the Indian tourism industry needs to learn the Chinese language as much as possible, an industry official said Thursday.

Delivering the keynote address at the International Travel Mart (ITM) Goa, Pradip Madhavji, former chairman of Thomas Cook-India, said that hordes of Chinese tourists would soon outnumber the tourist community globally and that Indians should gear up for the opportunity.

“The industry, guides especially need to know the Chiense language. The Chinese tourists will soon devour the rest of the tourism community in the world,” said Madhavji, who is also New Zealand’s honorary consul based in Mumbai.

With control on foreign travel gradually being eased in China, the country is expected to have nearly 100 million outbound tourists traversing the globe by 2020, according to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), a United Nations agency dealing in global issues related to tourism.

Madhavji also said that India did not have enough multi-lingual guides and that knowledge of the English language only was not enough, keeping in view tourists from diverse nationalities coming to India.

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