Despite all the talk of the great untapped potential that the domestic tourism market offers, which could offset some of the losses in the decline in foreign tourist arrivals in the country in the last few months, the growth in domestic travel more than halved to 7% in calendar year 2008 compared to 14% in 2007. While the sector has started seeing recovery both in terms of domestic travel and foreign tourist arrivals since last couple of months, the first quarter of the year was bad in terms of arrivals, the spread of swine flu could dampen the party.
Though the numbers are yet to be officially announced by tourism ministry, officialvs privy to the figures told FE that the growth in the domestic travellers in 2008 was 6.9% compared to the year 2007. However, 2007 recorded a growth of 13.9% in domestic travel. Travel and tourism industry players and experts attribute this to the impact of slowdown, which played havoc in the sectors towards the last four-five months of last year. Moreover, the terror attacks in Mumbai towards the fag end of the year could also be one of the reasons for the slowing of growth.
Praveen Gandhi, CEO of Carlson Wagonlit Travel, a corporate travel management company said while in value terms there has been a dip in business as fares have come down, in terms of number of travellers, the impact is not as significant. However, with corporates tightening their belts and cutting down heavily on travel cost, there has been a severe impact on business travel. He also said that “while the months of June and July had shown some growth, August is again soft due to the swine flu panic in the country”.
Industry experts also feel that domestic travel is highly unorganised and the numbers should be taken with a pinch of salt as a large part of the market remains untracked along with a lack of clear distinction between a tourist and a regular traveller. As far as the current year is concerned, the first few months of which saw the impact of the global economic crisis deepening, players expect it to be better than the last year. “2009 numbers should definitely be better given the spread of swine flu is contained,” said Deep Kalra, co-founder and CEO of Makemytrip.com, the largest online travel agencies in the country.
|
|
