THERE IS A NEED TO HAVE AN INDUSTRY BODY FOR OUTBO

Outbound travel needs an exclusive industry body similar to the line of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) which is meant to look after the inbound travel. This is because of the fact that Indian outbound travel is fast growing and surpassing all other segments in the travel and tourism industry. We have seen double-digit growth since last few years in the Indian outbound travel. The outbound numbers have already crossed the 12 million marks and going by the WTTC’s figure, the number will touch 50 million by 2020. Moreover, there will be no stagnation in outbound tourism as a product as the discerning global traveller will always have the choice of new destinations and experiences. Look at some of the statistics. India has a sizeable population of 300 million middle class and it added more than more than 42,800 millionaires last year, taking the total number in the country to more than 127,000 millionaires and this number is bound to grow further as India managed to sustain its economic growth and will continue to do so. Moreover, India also has a record 69 billionaires with combined net worth of $300 billion. International flight frequencies to India have tripled to nearly 2,300 per week from around 700-800 in 2004-05. More than 55 foreign airlines are currently operating to India. There are nearly 28 million passport holders, according to estimates, and this number will grow significantly since demographics indicate that there is a strong skew towards youth. Hence, we do have statistics to justify and fuel further growth to all segments of the already booming outbound tourism industry. A large number of Foreign Tourist Offices, overseas products and theme parks that have set up their offices in India. Currently more than 35 NTOs, over 100 tourism products have registered their presence in India. Various foreign tourism boards are developing their strategy to foray into the Indian market to drive the outbound traffic to their respective countries from India. The growing outbound numbers also prompted many travel agents to deal in outbound travel. Normally, countries do not promote outbound travel. As a country, the government is always involved in promoting inbound tourism. However, we believe that it is not uncommon to have a industry body which can exclusively cater to the outbound tourism. This will help in organising the outbound segment. However, such a body must be truly representative and must be driven by the best brains in the business.