Ileana D'Cruz to popularise Fiji as brand ambassador

After Ranveer Singh popularised Switzerland and almost doubled the number of Indian footfalls to the European nation, Barfi star Ileana D’Cruz will look to do the same for the tropical islands of Fiji.

Tourism Fiji has launched their new campaign #BulaHappiness in India to attract more Indian tourists to indulge in the sun and sands of Fiji.

D’Cruz launched Tourism Fiji’s campaign at the Fiji Roadshow, held on August 8 in India. The country's tourism board in holding roadshows in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore, between August 7 and 10.

"From 2016-2017, there has been a 30 per cent increase in Indian nationals visiting Fiji.  During the first quarter of this year, we recorded a rapid growth of 27.8 per cent as compared to 2017, making India one of the fastest growing tourism source markets, for Fiji," said Seema Kadam, country manager India of Tourism Fiji.

"With Ileana as our brand ambassador, we aim to showcase through this campaign video, a first-hand experience of what Fiji has to offer and hope that more and more Indians experience what this beautiful country has to offer,” she added.

According to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) India will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020.

Indian Tourism Statistics 2017 by market Research Division of the Ministry of Tourism adds that the number of Indian national’s departure from India during 1991 was 1.94 million which rose to 21.87 million in 2016 with a CAGR of 10.17 percent.

Illeana is the latest member of the club of celebrities endorsing international destinations preceded by Ranveer Singh in the recent past and Sidharth Malhotra who was on-boarded as the brand ambassador for New Zealand Tourism in October 2015 and Dubai Tourism that collaborated with Shahrukh Khan in early 2017.