‘2014 looks brighter for inbound’
Ishank Ahuja, Director, Indian Zing Tour, says that though 2013 was a mixed bag of good and bad times for the Indian inbound industry; 2014 is expected to be a good year, especially due to the emergence of newer source markets.
How is the Indian inbound industry growing?
In recent years, India inbound tourism industry has gone through its highs and lows. We saw new products, niche travel segments and new source markets coming up, at the same time we also witnessed a lot of uncertainty with some unforeseen situations and problems arising that hampered the overall inbound growth. To overcome these problems, the government is shunning their stringent visa and taxation policies making travelling to India relatively easier than the past few years. An additional boost to the inbound numbers came through India’s Visa-on-Arrival (VoA) scheme for select countries at many gateway cities. Amongst the travel trends, offbeat destinations like North East have seen growth and so did the backpacking adventure travel, luxury and wedding segments.
What are the sectors that you specialise on?
We specialise in all the classic Indian sectors such as the Golden Triangle, Rajasthan, India with Nepal, South India, Kerala, Central India, Bhutan with Sikkim, Trans Himalayan, Ladakh and Srilanka.
How has business been this year? How do you think will 2014 be?
Though in the first 9 months, we saw a good 13 per cent increase in the FTAs as compared to the 5 per cent of 2012, but the overall growth was not on expected lines. The economic slowdown and Uttarakhand floods contributed to this. To offset these, the Indian tourism ministry launched new strategies like VoA at gateway airports and India Travel Mart to promote India as a 365-day destination.
The outlook for 2014 looks bright as the benefits of devaluation of the rupee are taking effect. It is also expected to be a good year, especially due to the emergence of newer source markets, and new traveller segments like senior citizens, last minute travellers and the youth.
How do you receive the news of VoA for 180 countries?
Increasing the number of countries for VoA facility is definitely a welcome move. It is sure to give a boost to the inbound numbers making India a well sought after and easy to arrive at destination in the coming future.