During the second edition of FICCI‘s Outbound Tourism Summit, a recent report revealed that the Indian outbound tourism industry is expected to reach USD 44,799 million by 2032 from USD 15,163 million 2022. The report also highlighted the recommendations for growing the future of outbound tourism in India, which include tax rebates, collaboration with destinations and airlines, streamlining visa process and more.
FICCI and Nangia Andersen released a knowledge paper, ‘Unlock the Potential: A Look into Outbound Tourism’ during in Delhi on Friday, which highlighted that India’s outbound tourism has been experiencing a rapid growth in the recent years. Indian travellers are spending considerably more on their outbound trips.
India has emerged as the largest source market for outbound travellers in Asia in 2022. The country accounted for around ten million foreign trips, making it the leading Asian source market for outbound travel. By 2024, Indians are expected to spend more than USD 42 billion per year on outbound travel.
On the occasion, Ankush Nijhawan, Chairman, FICCI Outbound Tourism Committee & Co-Founder, TBO.com said that India’s outbound numbers are expected to reach the 2019 pre-Covid high of 27 million this year, or else full recovery are expected by 2024.
“Almost 27 million Indians travelled overseas in 2019 in the pre-Covid world. Year 2020 and 2021 were largely lost to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, with the world gradually opening to travel and tourism, in 2022, almost 20 million Indians have travelled overseas,” he said.
He added that India is set to become the highest MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition) tourism seller in the world by 2026. “India also has the potential to become the cruise hub and the number of outbound tourists from India is growing each year,” he added.
Indians have increasingly become eager to set off to foreign lands, with an estimated 20 million Indians planning a trip abroad annually. Intriguing insights into the preferences of Indian travellers were revealed by Avis India’s self-drive international booking trends of 2023, which highlights that the United States (US) is the most traversed international self-drive destination for Indians, with a 31 per cent share, followed by UK, France, South Africa, Italy and Portugal.
India’s outbound tourism market is projected to expand at 11.4 percent CAGR between now and 2032. This growth is primarily attributed to the increased desire of Indians especially millennials to visit international destinations before they turn 60. A significant number of people opt to visit USA, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Australia and Germany for education, business and travel purpose. Apart from this, nearly 60 percent of Indians travel to Thailand and USA for luxury high end vacations due to location, weather and beautiful beaches.
Post Covid, Indians are more passionate about travelling internationally on the back of rising YOLO (You Live Only Once) trend. Increasing trend of YOLO and desire for education from foreign universities will further boost the Indian Outbound Travel.
