With the increase in awareness about newer products, Indian travellers are now ready to set foot at lesser known destinations
The rapid growth in Indian outbound travel has prompted many new countries of the world to look at the India market. At present, over 22 million Indians travel outbound in a year and UNWTO forecast suggests that this number could go up to 50 million by 2020. Indian outbound has consistently been witnessing a double digit growth making India one of the fastest growing markets in the world. The reason for this growth is due to the fact that India has rising middle class with growing disposable income, expanding air connectivity with LCC offering reasonable airfare, ease in obtaining visas for Indian by many countries and Indians quest for exploring new tourism products and destinations.
Popular traditional destination like Thailand, USA, Singapore, Dubai have crossed one million visitors/ room nights market and destinations such as France, UK, Spain, Italy, Malaysia etcetra are trying their best to push Indian arrivals to their respective countries. This has led many new and emerging destinations to foray into the India market. Countries such as Israel, Jordan, Ireland, Czech Republic, Fiji, Reunion Island, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Mexico, Argentina, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Philippines, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica amongst others are aiming to tap the growing might of the inbound. Most of them have appointed their representatives in India and have consistently been running their marketing and promotional activities, although at a smaller scale, to create awareness about their tourism products. Countries like Czech, Poland and Argentina forayed into India market seven to eight years ago but due to the global economic meltdown they had to slow down their activities in India. Now, these countries are again back to cash in on growing Indian outbound travel segment. Some of these destinations are even looking at tapping the potential of niche Indian outbound wedding, honeymoon, MICE, golf, adventure and other segments. The current available statistics suggests that these countries are witnessing a double-digit growth from India.
Current Scenario
One of the major developments for all the emerging outbound destinations are that they have all witnessed a staggering double digit growth from India last year. India has truly been one of the fastest growing destinations for the outbound segment. With such growth, India has also entered into the priority list for most of these destinations.
Speaking about the growth in 2016, Hassan Madah, Director, Israel Ministry of Tourism India & Philippines said, “India is an important emerging travel market for Israel, which is evident in the investments we are making in the country, not only with the travel trade industry, but also advertising directly to the travellers. Indian arrival figures to Israel have grown. In 2016, we welcomed 44,672 travellers from India as compared to 39,529 in 2015 and 34,900 in 2014. There has been 28 per cent increase in Indian tourist arrivals to Israel in the last two years. The average spend is about US$2300 for approximately seven nights based on the selected accommodation.”
Echoing similar opinion Beena Menon, Representative India, Tourism Ireland opined, “India is one of the fastest-growing tourism markets in the world. Although the numbers visiting Ireland are relatively small, the Indian market has significant potential for growth. Air access is improving all the time, with Emirates and Etihad introducing double daily services from Dubai and Abu Dhabi to Dublin, and Qatar Airways launching daily flights to Dublin in June 2017. The British Irish Visa Scheme has also given a significant impetus to travel to Ireland from India, and we would like to continue to see visitor numbers grow. On average, the island of Ireland has seen a steady year-on-year growth from the Indian market of about 15-20 per cent. We are yet to receive the official figures for 2016 and Q1 2017, but we believe that there will be an increase in Indian visitor numbers to the island of Ireland.”
Emilla Kubik, Project Leader – Asian Markets, Polish Tourist Organisation (PTO), earlier said that Poland welcomed 26,000 Indian visitors in 2015 and this number is growing. “It is not a dynamic growth but we observe more and more Indian travellers related to business coming in bigger numbers. Of course, when there is a business trip, there is a scope for leisure. We are very much looking for that kind of business relations, not only business travellers. We are very much looking forward to showcasing not only Warsaw but beyond the capital city,” Kubik said and added that direct air connectivity between India and Poland will make things easier.
“Over the last five years, the overall growth has been consistent of about 15-30 per cent from India to the Scandinavian countries. We expect 10 per cent average growth from the Indian market,” Mohit Batra, India Representative, Scandinavian Tourist Board, told T3 earlier. According to him, the growth comes across all the segments of the travel industry – fixed group departures, individual travellers and incentives. “This year we see people travelling in a group of 4-8, they are complete FITs. We also see a lot of interest in younger generation to visit Scandinavia. We have observed a healthy growth in the number of Indians travelling to these destinations, primarily from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. But, cities such as Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune have also been showing encouraging results,” he added.
Czech Republic is also strengthening its foothold in India market. “Last year, Czech Republic saw a 50 pc increase by welcoming 67,000 Indian travellers. We hope that the number touches 100,000 soon,” a spokesperson of Czech Tourism said.
Even destination like Fiji, which still doesn’t have the best of the connectivity from India has clogged double digit growth last year. “India is one of the key emerging markets for Tourism Fiji and we have been witnessing a steady growth of 15 – 20 per cent on a y-o-y basis. For the year ending 2016 we had 3,987 arrivals to Fiji from India and 1,188 in Q1, 2017,” said India Representative of Tourism Fiji.
Setting trends
In the last couple of years one of the major trends that have been witnessed by a majority of the tourism boards is the profile of Indian travellers is getting younger. Millennial travel has been at its peak. Every destination is now trying to attract these travellers as they are the ones who experiment with niche activities and destinations. Even when it comes to the culinary experience, these travellers opt to try the local delicacies.
Speaking about the emerging trends from India market Menon said, “We have been observing that Indians are widely opting to travel to unexplored destinations and have been quite experimental with their travelling choices. With an increasingly youthful population, more young Indians between the age group of 18-24 are travelling this summer and they have moved from fixed itineraries to flexible holidays that offer them the opportunity to immerse themselves in the local culture. We have also an increase in demand for food tours.”
She further added, “Another trend is the increase in demand for self-drive holidays that allows flexibility and ease of travel. There has been a growth in the number of people moving beyond city experiences and venturing into the surrounds, which offer a variety of experiences including food and drink, nature and water-based activities, amongst others. We also see a trend of Indian travellers looking for new reasons to travel and apart from typical holiday season travel, we now see people making travel plans for celebrating special occasions in life such as birthdays, anniversaries, and professional achievements as well as for food and adventure and romance.”
Also the Gen next travellers are now well equipped with technology and social media. A lot of these travellers are very well informed about the destinations, which attracts them to opt for tours which has an element of local culture. According to Asit Taneja, Country Manager –India, Jordan Tourism Board today’s traveller has become more aware and we are seeing a lot of interest from travellers for more information before they travel. “They are interested in the history and the background of the country they visit; and Jordan offers them an eclectic mix of culture, history, food, etc which is an unbeatable combination.”
Earlier destinations like Israel was considered to be unsafe, but now this is one destination which is one every niche travellers bucket list. The destination for long was considered as a holy destination for pilgrim travel, but now trends have changed, Indians are travelling to Israel for niche experiences like wine and gastronomy tours. “Honeymooners, Family, Leisure, Adventure enthusiasts, Food and Wine connoisseurs and MICE are some of the segments we are currently focusing on. Holy Land tours or pilgrimage tourism does constitute a major segment of tourists to Israel from India however we are seeing growth in the other segments as well. Israel has something for everyone from adventure, Dead Sea, deserts, mountains, culture, history, fashion and nightlife to explore,” Madah informed.
Novel attractions
Destinations are now going all out to get their share of the Indian outbound. Even the emerging destinations are now promoting lesser known destinations and activities for the Indian travellers to further tap new as well as repeat travellers. Speaking about the attractions in Jordan, Taneja said, “Indians are becoming increasingly adventurous and thirsty for new destinations and experiences. This enables us to bring to their notice the vast potential of Jordan as a complete MICE, family holiday, wedding and honeymoon destination. Jordan has a lot to offer in terms of historic sites, wellness, culture, religious, and leisure options. Amman, Wadi Rum, Petra, Aqaba and the Dead Sea are all unique sites and give a 360-degree diverse experience to the traveller as it includes the sea, mountains, desert and a number of historical and architectural highlights.”
In recent years, there has been a huge trend of film and TV tourism, a lot of the destinations leverage on film tourism to attract travellers to the shooting locations. Ireland is the venue popular for a lot of famous movies and series. Menon said, “Tourism Ireland will create ‘stand-out’ experiences for Ireland around the world throughout 2017, highlighting iconic experiences like the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland’s Ancient East, Titanic Belfast and the Causeway Coastal Route. We will also promote Dublin and Belfast, as food and drink destinations. Screen tourism will remain a priority, as we continue to capitalise on our connections with Star Wars and Game of Thrones.”
Fiji is more popular to the global travellers as an exotic destination. The island nation is now seeing a lot of new developments in terms of hotel infrastructure. To further add to the list of attractions, the destination is all set to promote some of the newer luxury resorts to be opened this year.
Challenges
One of the key challenges which most of the emerging outbound destinations or the newer entrants facing is the lesser knowledge about their tourism products in the India market. Having realised this, the tourism boards or representations in India are now investing more into organising roadshows and training sessions to increase the visibility of the destination and for better selling of the products.
Speaking about the challenges Menon said, “Ireland has several iconic experiences, wonderful landscape and warm, friendly people. A holiday in Ireland offers huge diversity, rich culture and unique experiences, that we believe will appeal tremendously to the Indian traveller, For Tourism Ireland, our main goal is to create further awareness and knowledge about the island of Ireland in the fragmented Indian travel distribution system and with the constantly evolving media landscape.”
Some destinations like Israel have already organised a series of roadshows in India, but will once again organise in the year to increase the visibility. Also Israel is looking to tap travellers from the Tier II and III cities.
Madah stated, “We began 2017 with a three-city roadshow in Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad in the month of February. We will be conducting more roadshows this year in other Indian cities. We are also conducting some joint promotions with selected trade partners in India. In additional to this we will continue to conduct familiarisation trips for trade & MICE so they can have a first-hand experience of the destination.”
Long haul emerging destinations still face a huge problem of connectivity. For destinations like Fiji, the traffic between these routes is at the moment insufficient to have a non-stop direct flight.
Speaking about the hurdles Spokesperson of Tourism Fiji said, “Connectivity to Fiji used to be one of our challenges from India. However, we have seen some good feedback on this front with the launch of Fiji Airways’ direct flights from Singapore to Nadi, Fiji. To further promote the destination we will be organising Tourism Fiji India Roadshow, our biggest trade engagement, which is scheduled for July 24 – August 1, 2017 across Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Bangalore. This will help us educate and train more agents across these markets, highlighting the variety of Fiji’s offerings.”
Overall, Indian travellers are experimenting with the choice of their vacations. A lot of trends have changed over the years as the young age travellers do now not want to go to traditional destinations and travel for mere sightseeing. Increasing the awareness of today’s travellers will only further fuel the footfall to these destinations.
Hassan Madah, “India is an important emerging travel market for Israel, which is evident in the investments we are making in the country.”
Beena Menon, “With an increasingly youthful population, more young Indians between the age group of 18-24 are travelling.”
Asit Taneja, “Indians are becoming increasingly adventurous and thirsty for new destinations and experiences.”
