India Travel statistics make for fascinating reading
An estimated 19 million domestic passengers travelled by air in India in the year to March 2005, and India’s domestic air travel market is forecast to grow 20 percent a year over the next five years, boosted by new airlines and lower fares.
Two hundred million Indians are expected to make domestic journeys this year — ranging from pilgrimages to family reunions and corporate incentive travel — and about 6.2 million will fly out of the country.
One estimate of India’s travel market is that it will be worth about $40 billion in 2006 and expand to $50 billion by 2009, with revenues from foreign travellers in India quadrupling to $24 billion by 2015.
But India’s travel industry is fragmented and dominated by family-run firms. Also, Internet penetration and credit card usage are low, and there is a shortage of quality budget hotels.
More domestic air travel opportunities, the liberalization of food and wine imports — leading to a surge in high-quality restaurants outside of five-star hotels — and the growing spending power of Indian middle class consumers has changed the tourism market scenario.
As a result of Incredible India campaigns, the foreign tourist arrivals increased 23.5 per cent in 2004. An estimated 3.54 million foreign tourists arrived in India during 2004.
The tourist arrivals during January-June, 2005 also registered an increase of 18.6% over the arrival in corresponding period of 2004. Foreign exchange earnings through tourism up to June this year has registered an increase of 25.2%.
India receives the largest number of overseas tourists from he United Kingdom, which is its largest sources market, followed by the United States, Sri Lanka, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Australia and Singapore. Repeat visitors account for 44.9 per cent of the overseas visitors.
Graham Muldoon
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