The country?s travel and tourism industry, which has been one of the biggest casualties of the global economic crisis, is beginning to see some signs of recovery from April onwards. According to tourism ministry figures, the drop in foreign tourist arrivals (FTA) during the month of April was 3.5%. The decline in arrivals in May was further reduced to 1.9%. Between January to March, the decline was steep in the range of 17-10%.
?This is a good sign if you compare the drop in arrivals between January to March,? said tourism secretary Sujit Banerjee. Moreover, foreign exchange earnings in May were up 8.7% at Rs 3,249 crore compared to the same period last year. While January had registered the biggest drop in FTAs at 17.6%, in February, FTAs were down 10.5%. The figure for March was down 12.5% as compared to last year.
?A part of the recovery is also due to the seasonality involved. This is holiday season and most people travel to both domestic and international destinations,? said Makemytrip.com (India?s largest online travel portal) co-founder and CEO Deep Kalra.
Another set of numbers which signal a recovery is from Amadeus, which is one of the biggest travel distribution companies. According to its India data, travel transactions were up 10% year-on-year in May 2009. This is the first month of the year, which has shown a year-on-year growth. ?There has been a 14-15% growth in net booking post May 15. While this doesn?t translate into immediate travel, as people book in advance, there is a clear change in sentiment,? said Amadeus India managing director Ankur Bhatia.
However, according to Carlson Wagonlit Travel CEO Praveen Gandhi business travel is still to pick up. ?Most of our clients are waiting for the Budget to be placed in Parliament, which will act decisive for their future planning,? he said.
As far as leisure travel is concerned, the April to June quarter is historically the worst due to the summer. ?There is clearly an uptake in the outgoing sector. But, the arrivals are still not as good. However, we are seeing a trend where foreign tourists are going for mid-priced holidays instead of luxury holidays,? said Le Passage to India MD Arjun Sharma.
?While it is too early to speak of a recovery, the market is surely bottoming out. That?s good news in itself,? said Cleartrip CEO Stuart Crighton.
