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The Indian and tourism sector has recovered significantly, according to a new report from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), but foreign spending in India remains below pre-Covid levels.
The WTTC found:
The consulting firm McKinsey and Company had predicted in the past that India would become the fourth largest national market in terms of spending until 2030.
Rikant Pittie, co-founder of online company EaseMyTrip, agreed with the WTTC report. He said: “The domestic and tourism sector has become the backbone of India’s economic expansion in recent times, especially with the government’s focus on selling India as an equivalent to a global destination. »
According to recent data from aviation analytics firm OAG, India is now the third-largest domestic aviation market, after the United States and China. Domestic passenger air traffic in India in 2023-24 also exceeded pre-Covid levels.
Earlier this year, Mark Hoplamazian, CEO of Hyatt Hotels, also spoke about his company’s focus on India, especially its local citizens. “The country’s recreational market is basically driven by Indians going to India and looking at the country,” he said.
“The Indian market has started to experience an uptick since the end of last year, with the recreational hospitality segment leading the way. Especially after Covid, incoming India has the buzzword. Indian travellers have also started to find India more exciting due to the effect of increased marketing efforts and better foreign airfares,” said Arindam C Bahel, Managing Director of Fern Brentwood Resort, Mussoorie.
According to the WTTC report, tourism in India is expected to advance from 2019 to the end of this year according to four indicators: contribution to the Indian economy, employment, domestic guest arrival, and foreign guest arrival.
He believes that:
However, there are dangers related to those projections: the peak of domestic travel in the summer, a record number of travelers left due to the heatwave in northern India. Extreme weather also led to a roughly 40% drop in inbound flight sales in May compared to April 2024.
Despite those WTTC projections, Sarovar Hotels and Resorts CEO Ajay Bakaya shared a different view.
“2023 has been a phenomenal year. Our domestic tourists came to us. We saw adjustments in 2024. We had a very smart first quarter from January to March and April saw moderate growth. But some put options saw a decline in May and June. It may simply be the election, but the effects were far below expectations and budgets,” he said, adding that he expects it to be only a short-term incident.
Bakaya also said that while India’s tourism sector is generally doing well, the scenario is not so favorable for hill stations. “In Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, tourism this year has been below the levels of 2022 and 2023. The reason is that our departures are now healthier and more powerful, with more features, less difficult visa variety, and cheaper flights.
He believes that in the long term, mountain resorts will return to moderate pre-Covid levels of activity, but will not experience a boom in activity. Goa, he explained, is also not experiencing the expansion it is having, as it is probably the most sensible tourist destination in India. “So the image is very intelligent and very positive, but not everything is so beautiful. We will have some demanding situations before we achieve the most sensible thing,” he said.
Meanwhile, foreign arrivals are lagging behind. And India has cut its tourism promotion budget by 97%.
Bakaya said: “We are pinning all our hopes on what will happen from October 2024 (India’s inbound tourism season), but so far we have noticed very few inbound travel. It is disappointing.
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Tags: domestic tourism, easymytrip, Hyatt Hotels, India, India issuer, indiaArray foreign tourism, ForeignArray mark hoplamazian, hotels sarovar, tourism, industry, trends, wttc
Photo credit: According to WTTC report, India tourism will increase from 2019 to the end of 2024. Godson Bright / Pexels
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