Newstrack

Kuoni travel report identifies key trends in India's inbound and outbound tourism market

Andrea Lopez - Mumbai

The Kuoni Travel Group has released its first study on travel and leisure markets in India. The 240-page report covers a broad spectrum of inbound, outbound, domestic tourism, travel retail and the hospitality industry, besides providing forecasts for the travel and leisure business in India upto 2020. Reto Wilhelm, division head, SBD Style, Kuoni Travel Group said that the objective of the project was to gather and document research available on the travel patterns and trends in the Indian travel industry. "Drawing from research conducted by WTTC, WTO and other global tourism monitoring bodies, the Kuoni Travel report attempts to validate these studies," he said.

The key findings of the report suggested that the leisure segment, which grew from six per cent to 20 per cent from 1995 to 2006, is likely to reach 35 per cent by 2015. Interestingly, Singapore and Malaysia have made it to the list of top ten aspirational destinations for Indians.

FIT travel has overtaken packaged tours and group travel. The report estimates that by 2020 India will have a total of 17 to 20 million outbound tourists, out of which roughly 50 per cent will constitute the leisure segment. It also suggested that hill resorts, beaches and rejuvenation centres were more popular with domestic travellers. Interestingly, the findings also revealed that availing of loans for holidays hasn't caught on as people still rely on their personal savings to make domestic and international trips. In keeping with the large volumes of domestic travel, it was observed that the ratio of domestic to international trips a year was 3:1. The report also estimated that 46 per cent of Indians took an average of less than a month to plan a domestic holiday; a trend which is foreseen to continue in the coming years. On the hospitality front, guesthouses, private apartments and self-catering apartments have been estimated to double their sales between 2005 and 2010. Wilhelm added, "Phone card companies are also trying to cash in on the growth in tourism in India and business travel is showing promising growth. Finally, travelling to exotic new destinations, more so areas within existing destinations seems to be the trend for the future.