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Indian summer

Globetrotters from the subcontinent are showing an increasing interest in the region
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In the spotlight ... Swarup presents the study at ITB

A tourism intelligence and marketing study conducted by Kerala-based Stark Tourism Associates corroborates United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s prediction that outbound tourism from India will touch a whopping 50 million by 2020.

"The Indian traveller is increasingly seeking immersive holidays in exotic destinations that will help him tell new stories of people, cultures and food," said B R Swarup, founder-director of Stark Tourism Associates.

"The number of Indians travelling to other countries is set to grow exponentially with the estimated one billion domestic travellers increasingly setting their eyes on international travel. This great movement to see the rest of the world will attain epic proportions in the coming years."

Unveiled at the India Forum session at ITB Berlin in March this year, the focus was on the growth of tourism in India. However, the study also revealed some interesting facts from the Middle East point of view.

TTN chatted with Binu Philip, associate director and general manager of Stark Communications, Bangalore, for more.

"According to our study, Emirates is by far the most popular airline in India, with most travel agents and operators preferring EK," says Philip. "For instance, agents from Ahmedabad, a city in the western state of Gujarat, have said that if Emirates connects more frequently to the city, then more people will definitely travel outbound. It is interesting to note that agents from Ahmedabad specifically mentioned Emirates and no other airline."

Qatar Airways is also within the top seven airlines in India, while Etihad is a bit slow to catch up.

The only exception is the Maharashtrian city of Pune, where agents and operators mentioned Lufthansa for the European market.

Destination wise, Dubai was ranked fourth on the Indian outbound list. "Though this research was only done with tour companies, an aggregation of those numbers does help see Dubai in top five destinations from India. Abu Dhabi and Oman also figure in the top 25 list," says Philip.

The Far East is traditionally the most preferred destination for Indians but now the focus seems to be shifting west-ward. Recent promotions held by Oman and Abu Dhabi with respect to the travel trade has helped this shift.

The study, done across nine cities in India, gleaned data from in-depth interviews with 106 trade members.

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