Tag Archives: India

Singapore welcomed a record 160,000 cruise passengers from India in 2018 (a 27% increase over 2017), establishing India as the top source market for cruise visitors, revealed GB Srithar, Regional Director, India, Middle East & South Asia, International Group, Singapore Tourism Board. He added, “This was possible only with the strong and relentless support from partner-friends like you, making Singapore a must-visit cruise holiday destination and hub.” Talking about the Cruise Tourism Performance in 2018, Srithar said, “2018 was a good year for Singapore’s tourism sector. Singapore welcomed 1.44 million visitors from India to Singapore in 2018 (a 13% increase over 2017’s visitor-ship). Specifically, for cruise, total passenger throughput was at a high of 1.87 million (a 35% increase from 2017). The higher passenger throughput was due to the year-round deployment of Genting Dream and extended sailings from Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas.”

In the first half of 2019, Chinese arrivals to India recorded a Year-on-Year (YoY) increase of 21%, according to a report released by China Outbound Tourism Research Institute. The report also revealed that Chinese arrivals to India reached an all-time high at 282,195 in 2018. In the second half of 2018, the Year-on-Year increase reached 32%. Total arrivals from China to India in fourth quarter (Q4) of 2018 was 84,487, recording a share of 0.2%, as compared to number of Chinese outbound travellers to all destinations across the world in Q4 of 2018, which was 40,000,000

According to an analysis conducted by Travelport, India has emerged as the top travel destination in Asia this summer for travellers from the United Kingdom (UK). Globally, the United States was the top destination while India was the 2nd most popular long-haul destination for UK travellers. The report revealed that as of June 14, 2019, just under 87,000 advanced bookings had been made in the UK through all global distribution systems (GDS) for return flights to India scheduled between Friday June 28, 2019 and Sunday September 8, 2019. Flight bookings in other Asian countries like Thailand and China stood at 49,137 and 29,870 respectively. With flight bookings up by 3,402 (13 per cent) year-on-year, China was the fastest growing top ten long-haul destinations for UK travellers compared to the same period the previous year. Martin Herbert, Regional Managing Director – India and Sri Lanka at Travelport, said: “It’s exciting news for Indian tourism to see the country attracting more bookings than both China and Thailand combined. This trend is fuelling increased booking volume and we expect to see it continue in the years to come.” Sandeep Dwivedi, COO at InterGlobe Technology Quotient (ITQ), commented: “India has been one of the topmost choices of international travellers owing to its rich cultural heritage, varied cultures, art & crafts and spiritual tourism. We are happy to see India as the second most booked summer destination for UK travellers. With so much to see and offer, I am sure that this number will certainly rise in the coming years.”

WTTC forecasts the total contribution of Travel and Tourism to India’s GDP will more than double from USD234 billion in 2017 to USD492.2 billion in 2028. Besides the direct contribution of travel and tourism to national GDP, the sector’s induced contribution increased 6.6 per cent per annum between 2012 and 2017, while indirect contribution grew at 7.5 per cent during the period, CAPA India’s Inbound Tourism Report reveals. The sector can support job opportunities in rural opportunities in rural communities — where they are needed the most, especially in developing countries like India. Additionally, for developing economies, travel services were consistently the lead contributer towards service exports between 2006 to 2016.

Amongst the 10 largest fleets in the world by country, India has the highest ratio of aircraft on order to aircraft in-service, according to a latest report by CAPA India.  In India, for example, the propensity to fly is 0.1 trips per capita today but by 2037 will rise to 0.4, or roughly four times greater. A survey questioned 20,000 people from 18 countries and found that 56 per cent of the people surveyed coming from emerging countries saw themselves first and foremost as global citizens. In India, this figure was 67 per cent. The BBC suggests this is partly because “…the world as a whole is becoming more prosperous and air travel is becoming more affordable to the rising middle classes.”

Rapid urbanisation in India is increasingly making Tier-III markets more relevant in the eyes of the hotel brands, according to a ‘India Hospitality Industry Review’ report by HVS Anarock. Nearly a third of new hotel signings emerge from these markets despite hotels being much smaller than those located in Tier-I markets. This is also happening on account of newer hotel management companies setting shop as also the smaller ones looking to grow rapidly through franchise or management agreement of smaller stand-alone hotels in Tier II, III cities.  

An HVS report titled ‘Hotels in India: Trends and Opportunities’ forecasts over 30,000 branded hotel rooms to be developed in the country over the next three years, taking the total anticipated branded supply to 1,49,276 rooms by 2021-22. The highest percentages of supply actively under development are in Chennai (94 per cent), followed by Hyderabad (89 per cent) and Bengaluru (72 per cent). The mid market segment continues to dominate the new supply pipeline accounting for 44.1 per cent of the proposed rooms.

Finland witnessed a 15 per cent growth in Indian arrivals in 2018 and over 80,000 overnights, informed Jukka Holappa, Commercial Counsellor, Country Head—India and Sri Lanka, Business Finland, at VisitFinland and India Workshop 2019 held in Delhi on February 25. Speaking at the event, he said, “The numbers from India have been growing. At our roadshows in Delhi and Mumbai, we have 10 partners from Finland and are looking at a participation of about 70-80 agents in each city. Indians usually like to explore more countries in one single visit, often going to Russia and Estonia; we are hoping to get them to stay longer in Finland.” Holappa claims that the they are committed to support, educate and grow the business for their travel partners. “It’s our role to educate the travel agents on Finland but the Indian travel trade needs to educate us to manage Indian travellers as well,” he concluded. He also informed that Lapland is very popular with Indians as they love to see the Northern Lights.

India is only the ninth largest country market outside Europe for international airline seats from Europe in 2018, reports a study by CAPA – Centre for Aviation. However, if North Africa and the Middle East are excluded, India is Europe’s number four long haul market, behind only the US, China and Canada. Among these leading long haul markets, Europe-India seat numbers grew fastest in 2018 versus 2017, with an increase of 12.9 per cent compared with 6.7% for the US, 10.9% for China and 7.3% for Canada. The annual seat capacity from Europe to India has enjoyed strong growth in each of the past two years, increasing by 9.4% in 2017 and 12.9% in 2018. The total number of seats (one way) in this market reached 5.0 million in 2018 (compared with 45 million for Europe-US) – a 30% increase from the low point of 3.8 million in 2013.

India and Maldives exchanged diplomatic notes for the implementation of the visa facilitation agreement with an aim to boost people-to-people ties between the two countries. The agreement provides a very liberal visa regime for Maldivian nationals to visit India for tourism, business, education and medical purposes. It will be effective from March 11 after all formalities including information being provided to all immigration offices, border points and customs authorities have been completed. The agreement was signed during Maldivian President Ibrahim Solih’s visit to India on December 17 last year. The exchange of diplomatic notes follows the signature of the agreement by President Ram Nath Kovind after the Union Cabinet had given its approval, read a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Relations between New Delhi and Male came under strain during former President Abdulla Yameen’s five-year rule, which saw him cosying up with China for various development projects, cracking down on dissent and imposing a state of emergency by jailing opposition leaders. Moreover, there were several diplomatic issues under the Yameen government with many Indian nationals being reportedly denied visas. Solih’s surprise victory in the Maldives presidential elections in last September came as a major diplomatic victory for India, after New Delhi repeatedly warned the Yameen government to respect democratic institutions and free the jailed opposition leaders.