Becoming a constant silver lining in the cloud of tourism, Indian outbound once more grew by leaps and bounds in 2014, leaving the industry waiting for 2015 with higher expectations. According to Sunil Kumar, Acting President, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), what started as about 4.5 million as outbound departures during 2000, has risen to over 16 million during 2013, an 8 per cent growth over 2012. A similar percent is expected during 2014 and it appears that this will grow even more aggressively, he opined.
Shibani Phadkar, Senior Vice President – Products & Operations, Leisure Travel (Outbound), said that Thomas Cook (India) has recorded a number of interesting travel trends – a 25 per cent growth in sports tourism owing to the IPL and FIFA; 40-45 per cent increase in experiential travel, 20 per cent upswing in culinary/cuisine travel and 20 per cent rise in luxury holidays to unexplored destinations. Even across tier – II and III markets, the company has seen a 25-30 per cent contribution to it’s luxury market share.
“This year, cruise vacations have taken off in a big way across all consumer segments. The EMI holidays option has opened doors to emerging mini metros and tier – II regional markets, our internal analytics indicating growth in queries of over 23 per cent. 2014 has been the year of long weekends along with a number of festivals thus creating greater travel opportunities for the travel-hungry Indian. The Independence Day weekend saw a delightful rise in queries- up by 20 per cent while the Dussehra-Puja and Deepavali by 26 per cent. Destination Weddings as well have observed an upswing of 15 per cent,” revealed Phadkar.
Rajeev Kale, President & COO- MICE, Domestic, Sports Holidays & Cruises, Thomas Cook (India) added that the year has reflected the MICE segment is becoming increasingly sophisticated with evolving preferences and interests. New unexplored destinations and unique and engaging experiences will be the predominate factors for corporates undertaking MICE travel seeing a growth of 25 per cent this year, he stated.
According to Phadkar, the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand is anticipated to garner keen interest from Indian cricket aficionados. – not merely to watch the matches live on ground, but equally to explore both destinations. “Our sales teams reporting a strong 25 per cent increase in queries, with interest not just from the corporate world, but also from Gen Y, ad hoc groups of friends and family,” she revealed.
She further added that, for 2015, the company is looking forward to a number of newer travel trends in reference to special interest tours surfacing this year whether they are culinary tours, wine and whiskey trails, mono destinations, treks and adventure, and so on.
Speaking about what can be done to further propel outbound tourism next year, Kumar opined that the tourism sector seems to be undergoing several changes – not a very good sight since continuity of what we have achieved needs to be consistent. “The new government must realise that there is plenty of “respect” given to an Indian traveller today, globally, compared to the past. Service tax on foreign exchange purchases, service tax on service charges from agencies helping passengers with visas – all this is beyond the service on air tickets. The government must play a key role in investing time to focus on outbound tourism,” he concluded.
