Disha Shah Ghosh - Mumbai Merlin Entertainments Group, owner and operator of a wide range of tourist attractions in key global markets, has earmarked India and China as top source markets in the Asia region. The company is hopeful of reaching pre-Covid numbers of visitors, globally, by end of next year.
“Our investment in India is about driving outbound visitation as we are seeing positive growth in Singapore, Japan, England and Australia. We get about 6,000 Indians a week at the Madame Tussauds wax museum in Singapore, where 80% of our total visitors are Indians. Our short-haul source markets will recover faster, but long-haul ones will take longer. By end of 2024, we will be back to 2019 guest figures,” said Shannon Bailey, Regional Trade Sales Director – APAC, India, Merlin Entertainments Group, during her recent visit to Mumbai.
Merlin Entertainments Group works with DMCs and Inbound Tour Operators in India, and has seen an uptick in demand in MICE movement. “We appreciate and understand that the travel trade is a fragmented market. We participate in majority of roadshows and tradeshows here in India.”
The company see maximum of its business from the markets of Mumbai and New Delhi. The London Eye, Madame Tussauds London and Legoland Florida are their top visited attractions.
