The strong growth in outbound trips from India continued seamlessly into 2019 and, in particular, destinations within Asia benefited from this upward trend. As in Asia overall, holidays abroad are becoming increasingly popular in India too.

The launch of ITB India in April 15-17, 2020 emphasises the importance of the Indian market in the international scene. The event will put India’s growing travel industry in the limelight. ITB India will be the gateway to the Indian travel market for international players to gain access to one of the fastest growing outbound market in Asia. The latest findings of the World Travel Monitor by IPK International point to further growth in outbound trips from India in 2020. The World Travel Monitor is based on the results of representative interviews with more than 500,000 people in over 60 countries worldwide. It has been compiled for more than 20 years and is recognised as the most widescale continuous survey of global travel trends.

Despite a large population and economic development India is not one of Asia’s high-volume source markets for outbound trips. It ranks fifth, a long way behind China, South Korea, Japan and even Taiwan. However, in recent years India’s market has recorded above-average growth in outbound travel: with an increase of seven per cent in the first eight months of 2019, outbound trips from India exceeded the average figure for Asia overall.

The main beneficiaries of India’s growth in outbound travel are destinations in Asia, whose market share rose to almost 70 per cent in 2019. Destinations in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan were in particularly high demand and reported double-digit growth. At seven per cent, travel to North America increased significantly too, whereas trips to Europe were below average during the first eight months of 2019.

The Indian market’s recent trend towards more frequent holidays abroad continued in 2019. Currently, holiday trips account for around 65 per cent of outbound trips from India. However, this figure is still well below par compared with Asia’s average overall (around 80 per cent). City breaks and round trips are by far the most popular outbound holiday types among Indians and now represent a total market share of almost 65 per cent. Sun and beach holidays also benefited from the growth in outbound trips and represent 16 per cent of the holiday market. However, compared with other Asian source markets this figure is still below average.

As well as bookings over the internet Indians travelling abroad made above-average use of travel agencies. With a market share of almost 45 per cent, travel agency bookings exceeded the Asian average as well as the global average, which is around 25 per cent.

IPK International forecasts a six per cent increase in outbound travel from India in 2020, thus continuing strong growth of the Indian market. This forecast is based on the findings of the “World Travel Confidence Index” of IPK International, which as part of World Travel Monitor polls people’s travel intentions for the next 12 months.

Rolf Freitag, CEO of IPK International, will present the final findings of the World Travel Monitor for 2019 at the ITB Future Day of the ITB Berlin Convention along with forecasts for 2020.