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A sinking rupee may have caused additional financial burden on travellers going abroad, but consumers have found a way to mitigate this.
Travellers are redirecting their preferences to locations closer home, say tour operators. Flight cancellations of Air India and Kingfisher Airlines’ withdrawal from certain sectors have also had their impact on the West-bound travel sector.
These developments have benefited travel destinations in South-East Asia.
“We have seen a definite increase in queries and bookings for South-East Asian countries this year,” said Mr Raja Natesan, COO, TUI India. “This quarter, destinations like Bhutan, Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam contributed a healthy 40 per cent growth from the Indian outbound travel,” he added.
South-East Asia is the fastest growing destination, followed by South Asia, with international arrivals into Asia-Pacific destinations growing by a collective seven per cent year-on-year during the first two months of 2012, according to data released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).
These destinations are popular because of low currency fluctuations and easy convertibility, as well as reduced travel time and easy visa norms.
For example, the Indian rupee is equivalent in value to Bhutan’s currency ‘Ngultrum’ i.e. 1:1, whereas the Sri Lankan Rupee is less than half the value of Indian rupee (1 INR: 2.35 LKR). The Myanmar ‘Kyat’ is valued at 15.20, while the Japanese Yen stands at 1.42 against Re 1.
Overall the sub-region registered a 13 per cent increase in foreign arrivals for the first two months of 2012. South Asia and South-East Asia led the market whereas North-East Asia (6 per cent) recorded higher growth as well, with arrivals to Japan up by almost 10 per cent in the first quarter.
Among other destinations, Bhutan has witnessed a healthy growth from the tourism front.
“We have seen the maximum growth this quarter with almost 30 per cent of our tourism from India,” said Mr Kartik Tiwari, Director, BhutanTravelAgency.com.
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