Aamir Khan - The New Brand Ambassador of Incredible India Campaign

Union Ministry of Tourism is featuring Aamir Khan as the brand ambassador for its immensely successful Incredible India campaign and spread the message of "Atithi Devo Bhava" (guest is god). The new message is a country wide awareness drive to enlighten the people of India about the necessity of proper cordiality towards both domestic and international tourists.

As a brand ambassador, Aamir Khan has the task of promoting the rich cultural heritage of India and ways to preserve and enhance it. He also will try to instil the right attitude inside Indians and make them implement the true concept of 'guest is god'. The actor has so far completed the shooting of two television commercials for the campaign. The commercials as well as the print advertisements and posters have gone live from January 21, 2009.

The 'perfectionist' actor, said to be working without a remuneration, has a clear idea about the whole project. “Each social work is different. Through this, I want to remind people how great is our country and want to sensitize our people. I want to tell them what we are -- we are warm and hospitable people. We have to protect those who are visiting our country. We must ensure that they have a good time and come back again.”

The "Incredible India" campaign was launched in 2002 by the Tourism Ministry and, like its name, made an immediate impact on the tourism industry of the country. The tourist influx of the country increased manifold in the subsequent years. 'Atithi Devo Bhava' was initiated in 2005 to improve the relation between host and the visiting foreigners.

According to the Ministry, "'Atithi Devo Bhava' is a Social Awareness Campaign aimed at providing the inbound tourist with a sense of being welcomed to the country. The campaign targets the general public as a whole, while focussing mainly on the stakeholders of the tourism industry. The main components of the campaign are training and orientation to taxi drivers, guides, immigration officers, tourist police and other personnel directly interacting with the tourists, while simultaneously creating a brand equity for the trained persons."

The primary aim of the campaign has always been to encourage tourism in the country, which in turn would be a catalyst for India’s economic development. The national level initiative is designated to address the pertinent issues at both micro and macro levels and work towards acceptable solutions to address them.