The Hindu Business Line : Tourist arrivals likely to grow this year: Amadeus

TOURIST arrivals are likely to grow during the current year with an emphasis on travel for medical, pilgrimage and alternative healing purposes, said Mr Ankur Bhatia, Managing Director, Amadeus India. The Indian travel business witnessed an increase of 28 per cent in domestic travel and 17 per cent on the international sectors last year.

Some of the factors that have contributed to the growth in foreign tourist arrivals are the growth in information technology and sustained destination brand building by Kerala, Rajasthan and Goa.

Tamil Nadu have started selling the proposition of more economic high-end medical treatment.

Air travel to increase: Domestic travel is expected to boom with the emergence of low cost carriers. Mr Bhatia said that domestic fares are expected to go as low as 25 per cent in the next two years and domestic aviation will attract more rail travellers.

Air Deccan, for instance, offers dynamic pricing on its entire seat inventory. The airline has sold 65,000 of its Rs 500 seats.

On the domestic front, popular destinations such as Kerala, Rajasthan and Goa are likely to dominate the market, while new destinations such as Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh are becoming popular, Mr Bhatia said.

New circuits: Among the new circuits that are coming up is the Buddhist circuit, which is of interest not just to domestic travellers but also to tourists.

That SriLankan Airlines operates flights to Bodh Gaya is an indication of the growing popularity of this circuit.

In Tamil Nadu, the Chettinad circuit, with its special cuisine and palatial houses, is being popularised. Smaller circuits around Mysore, Mangalore, Aurangabad are being created with a mix of leisure and pilgrimage travel, Mr Bhatia said.

More outbound travel: Dr M.K. Ajit Kumar, Vice-President, Hi-Tours Pvt Ltd, said that an emerging trend was that there were more first time outbound travellers compared to the previous year. There were 5.5 million outbound travellers in 2004 compared to the inbound figure of 3.3 million in 2004. The new areas in outbound travel are the Mauritius, Cambodia and China.

China is definitely emerging as a new frontier for the hardened leisure travellers from India who have seen most of South-East Asia and Europe, Dr Kumar said.

He pointed out that an American leisure holiday is often dampened with the prospect of the visa being rejected and is mostly for visiting friends and relatives in the US.

On the outbound sectors, there has been an increase in incentive and conference traffic to South-East Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, Dr Kumar said.

Though the grey or old people's leisure market is yet to pick up, there is considerable number of grandparents travelling to the Western countries to look after their grandchildren, he said.

This is entirely a westward movement than to South-East Asia or Australasia.

The worldwide growth rate of tourism from 1950s to 2000 has been 7 per cent. However, in 2004, there were 761 million international arrivals worldwide which is a 10 per cent growth, as per the World Tourism Organisation statistics.

Dr Ajit Kumar said that the 3.3 million international arrivals last year generated Rs 23,000 crore in foreign exchange.

However, India still has a long way to go when compared to countries in the region like China, which had 42 million arrivals, and Malaysia with 12.4 million arrivals last year. The Pacific Asia Tourism Association says that there will be 4.6 million arrivals into India by 2007.

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