TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY |MARCH 2019

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‘LOOKING FORWARD TOWELCOMING MORE INDIANS'

IN RECENT YEARS, LUXEMBOURG HAS EMERGEDAS ONE OF THE LEADING TOURIST DESTINATIONSIN THE WORLD. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS MOST

EXTRAORDINARY ABOUT LUXEMBOURG AS A TOURISTDESTINATION?e Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a cosmopolitancountry ideally located in the heart of Europe with athousand-year-old multicultural capital and differenttourist regions each with its very own characteristics.e only remaining Grand Duchy in the world, Luxem-bourg offers a huge variety of touristic attractions.

Set in natural and green surroundings, LuxembourgCity, the Capital of the Country, has been marked bycenturies of history, even as remaining a capital shapedby tradition and modernity. e old city and its fortressaround the Grand Ducal Palace have been on the UN-ESCO World Heritage list since 1994. e historical,medieval, classical and contemporary styles come to-gether like nowhere else. e remains of the centuries-old fortifications are among the many touristattractions in Europe, called the Casemates with 17 kmof underground tunnels. e Corniche offerspanoramic views of the historic sites and the surround-ing valleys of this unique city, which is oen referred toas the 'Gibraltar of the North'.

As one of the six founding members of the EuropeanUnion, Luxembourg is one of three European cities tohold institutional seats of the EU. Over the centuries,Luxembourg City has expanded with the most recentaddition being the Kirchberg district, which hostsmany financial institutions. Luxembourg is the premierprivate banking centre in the Eurozone and the secondlargest fund centre of the world.

Kirchberg is also home to a Modern Art Museum de-signed by the Chinese-American architect Ieoh MingPei and the Drai Eechelen Museum, which is housed inthe Fortress and illustrates the history of the city andthe country. In the Municipal Park, Indian visitors willfind a bust of Mahatma Gandhi created by their ownfamous artist Amar Nath Sehgal, who le a remarkableheritage with numerous sculptures, paintings and draw-

Located in the heart of Europe and famous for its multilingualism and hospitality, Luxembourg has seen a grow-ing number of Indians visiting its fairy tale castles, thousand-year-old historical sites, museums, vineyards andbeautiful nature reserves. In an exclusive interview with TnH, H.E. Mr. Jean Claude Kugener, Ambassador ofthe Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to India, speaks of a “highly promising trend” of an increasing number of In-dians applying for a Schengen visa to visit Luxembourg, and his country’s desire to welcome more Indian tourists

in the years to come. Read on:

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Jean Claude KugenerAmbassador of Luxembourg to India

By Prem Kumar

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ings in private and public collections during the 24years he lived in-between Luxembourg and India.

Due to its geological location, Luxembourg is hometo an array of different landscapes, which include thedense woodlands and valleys of the Ardennes, the fasci-nating rock formations of the Mullerthal region andthe region of the 'Red Earth' with its former mininglandscapes as well as the vineyards of the Moselle re-gion. Let me highlight some of the many tourist attrac-tions, you will find the 'Valley of the Seven Castles' andthe picturesque Castle-Palace of Vianden, which wasbuilt between the 11th and 14th Century on the foun-dations of a Roman castle. At the impressive Castle ofClervaux, you can visit the final integral version of thephotographic exhibition 'e Family of Man' by Lux-embourg born Edward Steichen, which was exhibitedin over 150 museums worldwide before being perma-nently installed in the Castle in 1994. e exhibition isalso inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World

Register since 2003.e Grand Duchy has one of the densest certified

hiking networks in Europe, all laid out in breath-takingsettings. For example, the Mullerthal Trail and the Es-capardenne Eisleck Trail, acknowledged among the'Leading Quality Trails - Best of Europe', offer breath-taking views over very panoramic landscapes. Stronglocal traditions and centuries of foreign influences havefostered a unique blend and rich offer of national andinternational gastronomy. e mild climate and thespectacular beauty of the hilly vineyards make thewines, and crémants of the Moselle region very popular.Among them is also the small wine-producing town ofSchengen in the Southeastern part of Luxembourg inthe ree-Border-Region, where Luxembourg, Ger-many and France meet, becoming synonymous withopen borders and free movement since the signature ofthe Schengen Agreement in 1985.

Taking into considerationthe tremendous increasein tourist and businessvisa applications in 2018,our Consulate in Delhi be-came the first Luxem-bourg Consulate in theworld last year to deliverSchengen visas to travelto Luxembourg.

TOP: (L) Casemates,Luxembourg City,(R) Echternach, thecapital of theMullerthal region,Luxembourg

BELOW: Luxembourg Cityview on the Grund

© Fränk Weber / LFT

TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY |MARCH 2019

40 D I P L O M AT ’ S C O R N E R

HOW IS LUXEMBOURG GROWING IN THE INDIANTRAVEL MARKET?We are profoundly satisfied with the 36% in-

crease in tourist and business visa applications from In-dians in 2018 as compared to 2017. We see this as ahighly promising trend. We are also buoyant with the22% increase in the size of the Indian community livingand working in Luxembourg during the same period.We look forward to welcoming more Indian tourists.

WHAT ARE THE UNIQUE DESTINATIONS IN LUXEM-BOURG YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECOMMEND TO IN-DIAN TOURISTS?

I would recommend all Indian tourists to visit theLand of the Red Rocks, which is located in the Southof the country. It owes its name to the red ore, whichwas behind the success of the steel industry in Luxem-bourg during its golden years in the 20th Century andled to the creation of the world’s largest steel producerthrough the merger of Arcelor with Mittal Steel, head-quartered in Luxembourg City since 2006. Today, theformer mining area of the Land of the Red Rocks hasestablished a new identity by combining old and newtechnologies. Some of the old blast furnaces have beenrefurbished as a testimony to our past and now standside by side to modern glass structures of the new Uni-versity campus and the concert hall Rockhal amongothers.

For the younger travellers, the Red Rock MountainBike Trail guides cyclists on the traces of Luxembourg’sindustrial and historical past through former open ironore mines in protected nature reserves. A guided tourof the National Mining Museum in Rumelange should

be every tourist’s trip to this region.Another recommendation is to

visit the capital of the Mullerthal re-gion, Echternach, which is the oldestcity in Luxembourg. e famousdancing procession of Echternach,held every year on Whit Tuesday, wasregistered as a UNESCO IntangibleCultural Heritage in 2010. It is thelast traditional Roman Catholicdancing procession in Europe thathonour Saint Willibrord, who estab-lished the Abbey of Echternach in the7th Century.

WHAT TIPS CAN YOU OFFER TOINDIAN NATIONALS APPLYINGFOR LUXEMBOURG VISAS?

e procedures to give visas to travel toLuxembourg are rather straightforward and

in line with the rules and regulations applyingto all 26 countries of Schengen. Taking into con-

sideration the tremendous increase in tourist andbusiness visa applications in 2018 compared to 2017,

The Grand Duchy has one ofthe densest certified hikingnetworks in Europe. For ex-ample, the Mullerthal Trailand the EscapardenneEisleck Trail, acknowledgedamong the 'Leading QualityTrails - Best of Europe', offerbreathtaking views over verypanoramic landscapes.

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4The Mullerthal Trail

Jean Claude KugenerAmbassador of Luxembourg to India

TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY |MARCH 2019

our Consulate inDelhi became the firstLuxembourg Con-sulate in the world lastyear to deliver Schen-gen visas to travel toLuxembourg.

Just aer my arrivalin India six monthsago, my visit to theVFS Global Visa Ap-plication Centre inConnaught Place wasvery high on my agenda

and I was very im-pressed by their manage-

ment set-up to allow asmooth process as much

for every applicant as for theConsulate.We have a small but highly

professional and efficient Con-sulate and we are known for delivering

visas on time. I highly recommend to any citi-zen who plans to travel for tourism or business to Lux-embourg to add all required documents to his file toensure timely delivery of their visa from any VFS Cen-tre throughout India to and from Delhi. e Luxem-bourg Consulate works with the 17 VFS Centres inIndia (Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai,Goa, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Kochi,Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, New Delhi, Puducherry,Pune, iruvananthapuram) and Kathmandu in Nepal.

HOW IS THE AIR CONNECTIVITY TO LUXEM-BOURG? ANY NEW ROUTES BEING PLANNED?e Grand Duchy can be reached with any

major airline and is easily accessible from any Europeancapital. Situated in the heart of Europe, any tourist

with a Schengen visa can easily travel within the Schen-gen zone by plane, train, car or coach to Luxembourg.

HOW WILL YOU DESCRIBE THE RELATIONSHIPBETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES?We are currently celebrating the 70th Anniver-

sary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations,which were signed on 1 July 1948. We are also celebrat-ing the upcoming 90th Anniversary of Luxembourg’sfirst Vice-Consulate in Bombay established on 5th No-vember 1929. We have become strong partners over theyears, a relation that has further deepened aer the in-auguration of the resident Embassy in Delhi in 2002.

Luxembourg ranks as the 16th largest Foreign DirectInvestor and has strong economic and commercial bi-lateral ties with India. e bilateral relations betweenboth countries are developing fast. e ever-increasingpolitical, economic, financial, cultural and people-to-people bonds give us a promising outlook for the nextdecades of friendship.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY THE MOST ABOUT INDIA?Since my arrival in September, I have been travel-ling a lot and received a very warm welcome in

Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Agra, Bhubaneshwar, Amrit-sar, Goa, Bengaluru and Jodhpur, to name but a few.

I am thrilled about all the opportunities to discoverIndia’s heritage, arts and cras as well as the new trendof combining traditional and modern art, which youfind in galleries in New Delhi, Mumbai and manyother Indian cities. Until now, I have met many fasci-nating people from various backgrounds and have dis-covered the cultural and spiritual diversity of India,which is very inspiring. I also enjoy the delicious Indiancuisine, another quality Luxembourgers share with In-dians, and I do recommend the reader to visit Luxem-bourg to enjoy our culinary delights.

I would recommend In-dian tourists to visit theLand of the Red Rocks lo-cated in the South of thecountry. It owes its nameto the red ore, which wasbehind the success of thesteel industry in Luxem-bourg during its goldenyears in the 20th century.

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TOP: ContemporaryLuxembourgKirchberg

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© Fränk Weber / LFT

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