Outbound travellers likely to double by 2020
Merubhai Bharwad, a farmer from Dholka near Ahmedabad, is planning his next international trip, likely to Canada, in around a year. Bharwad claims that he goes on a foreign trip in nearly every two years and so far, he has travelled with friends and family to locations mostly in South Asia.
“One has to plan in advance and do some cash flow management to be able to save enough for an international trip,” says Bharwad, a graduate in commerce who prefers group tours.
Bharwad is not a lone example — many farmers and agricommodity traders from his village often travel abroad.
Manish Sharma, owner of Akshar Travels and chairman of the Gujarat Tourism Development Society, says farmers and others associated with agriculture roughly comprise around 27 per cent of overseas tourists from Gujarat. Sharma works with around 30 tour operators across Gujarat and handles nearly 30 per cent of the traffic going out of the state.
According to Sharma, the number of outbound travellers grew from 4,000-5,000 in a year (through operators affiliated with him) around 10 years ago to 25,000-30,000 tourists per year now. According to his estimates, all operators handle at least 180,000-200,000 outbound tourists from Gujarat every year.
Gujarat is not an exception. According to the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) prediction, India will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020.
Operators say currently around 25 million tourists from India travel abroad — a number which will likely double in the next two years. Around a decade ago, eight million Indians were travelling abroad. Thenumbersswell
“The Yatra Winter Travel Survey-2017 showed that 36 per cent of travellers were planning an international holiday. Overall, it is estimated that 25 million Indians travelled overseas in 2017. India will be one of the largest outbound travel markets in the next few years,” said Sharat Dhall, chief operating officer (business to customer), Yatra.com.
“This market ( outbound travel) is growing at a doubledigit rate (15-18 per cent annually)— driven by approximately 7 per cent GDP growth over the past few years, increasing middleclassincomes, changingattitude towards spending, low airfares, group package tours and easy availability of EMI options on travel bookings.”
According to tour operators, not only more Indians are travelling abroad, they are also spending more on such travels. Mohit Gupta, chief operating officer, MakeMyTrip said: “There has been 3.7 times increase in the total spending by customers travelling to international destinations as compared to domestic destinations, with about 39 per cent more Indians travelling this winter than in 2016.” International travel grew by 60 per cent this winter as compared to last year, he said.
With taking a break from work becoming a stable trend, people are willing to spend more on travel, suggest operators. According to Dhall, “In the Yatra annual winter survey for 2017, it was noticed that 31 per cent of people were willing to spend over ~50,000 on a trip. While the preferred choice of accommodation remained budget hotels, they want to spendmore on experiences and exploration of the destination as well as shopping, food and drink.”
Changingprofileofthe traveller
International travel is no longer confined to the rich as those from the middle class are taking the plunge more often. Sharma said around 27 per cent of tourists going overseas from Gujarat are farmers or those associated with agriculture. Teachers and government officers (including bank staff) from small towns of the state comprise another 9 per cent, while shopkeepers and small businessmen make up for 20 per cent of outbound travellers from the state. Senior citizens constitute around 12 per cent of outbound tourists.
While the break-up may vary with each state, the fact remains that more people from the middle classes are opting to travel abroad.
With domestic travel becoming costlier (for example, a Dubai trip from Mumbai or Ahmedabad can be worked out to be cheaper than a trip to Kerala), the middle class is travelling abroad more often, said Mahendra Vakharia, president of the Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI).
Betterconnectivityfrom tierIItowns Internationalbudgetcarriersare offeringcheaperfaresanddirect connectivity to overseas locations from tier-II towns. While Thai Smile offers services from Varanasi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, LucknowandGaya, ThaiAirAsia offers connectivity from Trichy; similarly, Scoot (low-cost airline of Singapore Airlines) connects Jaipur and Singapore and AirAsia connects Bhubaneswar and Kuala Lumpur.
“Not only better connectivity but competition has ensured that international fares are affordable. Travelling within India is at times more expensive,” Vakharia said. Most outbound travels takes place from west India followed by north India. “Marwaris and Gujarati communities are the most avid outbound travellers,” he said.
WithinputsfromAneeshPhadnis inMumbai