The much-awaited South Africa holiday of 28-year-old Ms Swaroopa Das has got shelved. Following the weakening of the rupee against the dollar, Ms Das reworked the travel plan to suit her budget and settled instead for a week-long holiday in Sri Lanka.
Like Ms Das, if you are planning a holiday abroad, you too may have to reschedule or dole out more money for your travel. And as currency fluctuations burn a deep hole in the pockets of Indian travellers planning a trip abroad, tour operators too have increased their package rates, thereby upsetting the travel plans of many holidayers.
“The combined effect of rupee depreciation on the land charges (hotel, food and travel) would be 15-20 per cent,” said Mr Manoj Gursahani, Founder and Chairman, Travelmartindia.com.
The destinations that have become costlier are the US, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. However, travel costs to most of the European destinations, which are mostly denominated in the euro, will go up by about 5-7 per cent instead of 15-20 per cent, Mr Gursahani added.
While outbound travel is bearing the brunt of the rupee depreciation, its impact on inbound travel has been positive, say tour operators. “The impact will be positive as it will translate to more foreign exchanges earnings for the tour operators and better realisation.
“We expect a positive growth and increase in arrivals by about 15 per cent,” he said. Though travelling abroad may have become dearer, tour operators do not expect any decline in traffic. “There has been no decline in outbound tourism as travel has become a necessity to de-stress and rejuvenate. As travel is aspirational for Indians, depreciation will not affect the travel sector,” said Mr Rajiv Duggal, Managing Director, Kuoni India
During this season, the destinations Indians are heading for are Mauritius, Maldives, Kenya, Tanzania and Dubai. Among the other places, South-East Asia continues to be a popular tourism destination with Indian travellers. Tour operators say that the impact is felt less in travel to Dubai and other Asian countries as land charges are lesser than in the West.
“However, with the rupee depreciating, travellers might opt for short-haul destinations and mono destinations. Going by advance booking, the January-March quarter could see higher growth in volumes than the October-December quarter,” Mr Duggal added.