Coming soon, Brand Delhi

Like “God’s Own Country” for Kerala, “Hindustan ka Dil” for Madhya Pradesh, and “Incredible India”, the National Capital, Delhi, will soon get its own unique brand to go with its tourism attractions.

The process to bring out “Brand Delhi” has started with a deadline to launch it well before the Commonwealth Games.

Indi-rock band Euphoria is composing Delhi’s theme song in English aimed at foreign tourists. There will also be a Sufi song to be sung either by Daler Mehendi or Kailash Kher aimed at the home crowd.

“We are deciding on a best-in-the-business advertising agency to work with us on this. It will be put to test during the Games and will also be a long-term campaign to highlight Delhi on India’s tourism map,” said Delhi Tourism Managing Director Rina Ray at the Delhi Tourism Conclave, which ended on Friday.

As part of the exercise to market Delhi as a fun and safe city, the government has decided to empower thousands of tourists during the Games with two useful tools—a call centre and a website.

The call centre, operating 24X7, will support a number of foreign languages and help tourists with anything and everything that they might need to know to make their Delhi experience better.

“The call centre can book a cab, connect you to hotels and restaurants and even lodge complaints on anything,” she said.

Apart from that, Delhi Tourism floated the tender to develop a website this week. The website will have links to all services tourists generally need—from airline tickets and hotels to massage treatment.

And all this will be compatible with mobile phones so that the site can be used on the go.

“These services will protect tourists from the various traps laid out by the city’s touts and conmen posing as helpful tourist agents,” Ray said. “Brand Delhi” is yet to come up with its logo or even a slogan, which, the Delhi Tourism hopes, will be ready with in a month.

Meanwhile, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) said today that the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the venue for the athletic events as also for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games will be ready by June after major renovations.