Foreign tourism boards are gearing up to welcome the emergent and increasing number of Indians who are travelling abroad and splurging. Even though India is stressed by the sluggish economy and the depreciating value of rupee this hasn’t stopped Indian’s from travelling abroad. India has emerged as the world’s fastest-growing outbound market and is second only to China.
According to UNWTO reports, the number of Indians travelling overseas is set to rise to 50 million by 2020. Industry experts believe that this is due to India’s evolving and burgeoning middle class. Indians belonging to the four major metro cities have been known to travel abroad for the longest time but lately people from smaller cities of India are taking longer holidays and want to explore new destinations.
Contrary to common belief, Indians from tier II and III cities are equally attracted to an over the top and luxurious lifestyle as in metro cities.
“People from smaller cities like Ahmedabad, Bhatinda, Lucknow etc see outbound travel as a status symbol. They love the ‘show-off’ factor and this works very well for travel agents and tour operators. The middle class and upper middle class in the metro cities are already well travelled and are looking to travel for adventure and relaxation, not for the tailor made site seeing. Travel agents and tour operators need to realise that this particular emerging market in India has a lot of potential to evolve as it is still at ground level,” opined Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI).
“It is a must for the travel agents to reach out to tier II & III cities. A large chunk of middle class with disposable income hail from non metro cities, the buying capacity is very similar to people from metros. In the recent past people from cities such as Indore, Surat, Nagpur, Lucknow, Pune, Amritsar have started changing the way they live their life. The standard of living is much higher now days. They want to do more, they want to travel, explore and experience a whole new side to life. Travellers from tier II & III cities are usually first time travellers they prefer to go in large groups with their entire family and tailor made holidays,” said Iqbal Mulla, President, TAAI (Travel Agents Association of India).
Sharing the same sentiments, Pradip Lulla, National General Secretary, Travel Agents Federation of India , (TAFI) commented that it is all about the status and the feel good factor, “These cities are yet to evolve as major source markets for outbound travel but they are picking up at a very fast pace. People want to travel so that they can come and boast about their experience to their peers, click pictures, go sightseeing and do all the major tourist activities. They are the quintessential traveller and want to do a lot in a limited period. Travellers from metros are experienced travellers and are looking at travel from a whole new point of view. Indians travelling to Asia-Pacific alone spent US$13.3 billion in 2011. This figure is set to zoom to US$91 billion by 2030, making Indians the second-biggest spenders, after China, in the world on overseas travel. Tier II & III cities will also fuel this trend further.”
Holidays for middle-class Indians from smaller cities is about visiting friends and families coupled with a dash of sightseeing. It is a trend that is picking up among this particular market as a sizeable number of students from small towns study abroad.
“The outbound segment in India is growing rapidly and with an increasing disposal income and increasing standards of living, travel is steadily becoming a necessity. We get a lot of big families who want to travel overseas so that they can visit their relative who study/work there. These travellers usually behave differently than standard vacation travellers. They travel for longer periods, and take short breaks within the country itself,” said, Zakir Ahmed, President, TAFI.
Tourism boards are also set to woo first time Indian travellers from smaller cities and towns by offering value for money packages. “Owing to the beautifully packaged itineraries sales in tier-II and III are going very strong, a good sign for yet another great travel season for India’s tourism industry. Countries such as Switzerland, Spain, Thailand, Malaysia etc are tapping the tier II and III cities aggressively. Based on study of market research data, tier-II and III cities will be on be on every tourism board’s agenda. NTO’s offer different kinds of packages depending on tourist profiles and this works great for first time travellers. NTO’s have also started organising road shows and training sessions for travel agents and tour operators in tier II & III cities making it easier for them to sell the destination,” Subhash Goyal, President, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO).
