Going Forward- Destination India
India is now chalking up one of its strongest growth charts in a long time. As the Indian economy continues to open up in an effort to integrate with the world economy, benefits of doing business with and in India are increasing. With the results, hundreds of thousands of jobs are moving to the Indian shores from the West. This brings in its wake transit travelers, business travelers, business meets and holiday seekers.
This is resulting in greater room occupancies and average room revenues (ARRs) in the country. ARRs have moved up from Rs. 3200-3400 last year to Rs 4000-4200 this year. Room occupancy rates have shot up from 75-80% in 2004 to over 90% now.
Expert Opinions
According to Mr. L. Prithviraj Singh, Chief Operating Officer-Leisure, Cox & Kings (India), "Around 2.5 million tourists are coming in while outbound is still a nascent market. The potential for growth in the latter segment is much more than for incoming tourists.'' In fact, the recent rise in airline seating capacity to India and increase in hotel rooms have spelt greater affordability for the foreign traveler.
"One has to really bring tourism to its potential. We have not even scratched the surface. The need is to evolve a long term policy. Disinvestment of Government stake in Indian Airlines, Air India and ITDC in the long term will be a good thing and the privatized hotels will open up a new level of affordable hotels.'' says Mr. Singh, adding, "In India `open sky' policy has been launched resulting in drop page of prices. Now the capacities would improve and once that happens, all the other problems will be sorted out.''
Mr. Sunil Gupta, Head- Leisure Travel, Thomas Cook (India) says, "Inbound tourism is growing at a consistent CAGR of 6 per cent annually while outbound tourism is growing at 15 per cent year-on-year".
Mr. Ranjit Malkani, Chairman & Managing Director, Kuoni Travel India (KTIL)- "Growth in inbound travel so far has been due to tourists from West Asia, Latin America and Japan. The trend in European arrivals has been flat, though a 5-6 per cent growth is expected courtesy the rise in airline seat capacity.''