Indians — the new appetizing morsel for the tourism industry

Indians are proving to be a big and appetizing bite for the big travel companies. With over 1.4 billion people, India has the largest population in the world and the fifth largest economy. Travel from the country is growing at a breakneck pace – faster than any other country in the world. That is why many of the forecasts for the development of tourism make the big sharks in the industry grind their teeth and hope that this will bring them huge revenues. By 2020, China is the country reporting a high percentage of outbound travel. Data for 2014 show that Chinese tourists in 2014 numbered about 117 million people. 10 years and one pandemic later, the situation has changed and travel from China has dramatically decreased. Thus, the energy and focus of the world tourism machine shifted to the southeast – to India.In fact, the forecasts are interesting – Euromonitor International estimates that by 2030, the flow of tourists from India will increase to 47 million people – more than double the number compared to 2019. A similar forecast is in a 2023 report by Nangia Andersen , the Indian arm of Andersen Global, which indicates that outbound travel from India will grow at an 11.2% CAGR through 2032.If these predictions are confirmed, then another, bolder prediction might not be so implausible — this market will be worth $144 billion a year by the end of this decade.The average tourist spends good money—roughly $5,252 per trip, according to six-month data compiled by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. By comparison, the typical visitor from the UK and Brazil spends $2,656 and $3,344 respectively, and the average Japanese tourist spends $3,672. In other words, it takes two British tourists to spend as much as one Indian traveller.In fact, according to the data, 1.7 million Indian tourists visited the US last year, making India fourth after Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.The big sharks of the tourism industry are closely watching these forecasts and data and have already begun to aggressively court Indian tourists, often with the help of popular personalities in India — Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan promotes Dubai, Ranveer Singh appears in ads for Abu Dhabi, and wife Deepika Padukone is the global brand ambassador for Qatar Airways.Some destinations have made policy changes to increase capacity. In late 2022, Canada raised the cap from 35 flights from India to an unlimited number. Meanwhile, the South African Travel Company has teamed up with Ethiopian Airlines to provide faster connections between India and Africa.Airlines are also taking note of India’s growing importance. Most notably Singapore Airlines, which struck a deal in late 2022 with the Tata Group, paying $250 million for a 25% stake in Air India.  Indian tourists are also attractive for another purely demographic reason. The percentage of the young population is huge – according to the Pew Research Center, only 7% of India’s population is over the age of 65. People under the age of 25 constitute more than 40% of India’s population. It is also an extremely well-educated population, very well versed in digital technologies.