ITB India 2024: A market of opportunities

India’s travel market is different. To understand it, it is worth looking at the country’s cinema and film culture. When in 2023 the successful Netflix series Emily in Paris came to Indian viewers’ screens, the French capital witnessed a huge spike in searches on booking sites. In the country that is home to Bollywood, the degree to which films and series playing in faraway places influence people’s holiday expectations and travel plans should not be underestimated. The rising spending power of the Indian middle classes means that more and more people can draw their own comparisons between the dream worlds on their screens and real life.

Boom in tourism despite the pandemic

Despite the sub-continent suffering heavily from the Covid crisis, the pandemic barely dented this trend. The country’s long-term economic development, with growth rates of up to nine per cent, is increasingly leaving its mark on tourism. According to a survey by Booking.com and McKinsey, India’s travel spending figure of 150 billion USD in 2019, the year before the pandemic, is due to rise to 410 billion USD in 2030. India’s tourists are increasingly discerning and keen to experiment. A survey by the booking website Skyscanner found that they “want an authentic travel experience, in groups rather than on their own, and take inspiration from social media for their travel plans.“ India’s young population – the median age is only 28 – is helping to drive the online travel market more rapidly than in many European countries. Numerous Indian tour operators have long been offering mobile booking apps that are especially popular for domestic trips.

Growing online market and new challenges

The online market promises good sales and is correspondingly hard-fought. The Indian market research company Mordor Intelligence forecasts that India’s online travel market, resurgent in the wake of the Covid downturn, will reach 17.24 billion USD in 2024. By 2029, growing at an annual rate of 10.5 per cent, it will reach 28.4 billion USD. The pandemic also led to a market shakeout and consolidation, which mainly benefited financially strong companies. Among the market leaders are global players such as Booking.com and Expedia, but also new homegrown companies such as Via.com, MakeMyTrip and Yatra.

Many of these Indian companies have worked hard over many years to cement their position and expertise. Around the turn of the millennium MakeMyTrip, founded by the Indian entrepreneur Deep Kalra, began offering flights between India and America online, since when it has taken advantage of the country’s rapidly expanding airline network. “The investments in India’s aviation sector are nothing short of a revolution. The relevant policies were introduced before Modi came to power, but have only come to fruition in the last decade. There are more international airports than ever, and the airline market has opened up almost entirely“, says Imtiaz Muqbil, a respected Indian tourism analyst. Another positive development is the fact that holiday destinations such as Thailand, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Mauritius and Turkey recently loosened their visa requirements for Indian travellers and regard the country as an important source market.

Foreign investors in search of a share of the country’s dynamic markets are well advised to keep a lookout for suitable business partners. Without the expertise and networks of local partners, it is difficult to understand the workings of India’s fragmented economic system with its many small companies and intermediaries, the vast number of languages spoken on the sub-continent, and the complex nature of India’s bureaucracy. Careful groundwork on the spot is well advised. “Foreign companies should carry out thorough research. Good preparation is the basis for successful and goal-oriented marketing campaigns. Only then should one seek out a young and dynamic communications company to execute the campaigns“, Muqbil says.

OYO – a success story

In India, even international corporations do not rely solely on their market dominance and image, preferring to team up with local partners. As early as 2019 the US-based company Airbnb decided to collaborate with the Indian hotel chain OYO in order to offer their accommodation via its platform.

OYO’s rapid rise is an impressive example of the innovative approach of a new generation of pioneering Indian entrepreneurs who are increasingly making their mark on and revolutionising the sub-continent’s tourism market. In 2014, after two years in the USA and having received startup funding from the US-based investor Peter Thiel, Ritesh Agarwal, now aged 30, began marketing small hotels and private holiday apartments in India online. OYO handles all dealings with customers, credit card payments and checkouts. The franchise concept proved to be lucrative for the country’s approximately 250,000 small independent hotels, and OYO expanded rapidly. Ten years on from its launch, the company has transformed into a multinational with 18,000 hotels and over 85,000 holiday apartments at home and abroad. In future, up to 4,000 hotels and 7,000 holiday apartments are to be added annually.

Success stories such as that of OYO’s founder, who is now a billionaire, stand for the country’s huge creative potential and a young population that can relate to IT. In order to discover and look into this potential, people must meet in person and on the spot.

ITB India 2024: opportunities for international players

ITB India provides an opportunity to find out in detail about the rapidly expanding markets of India and southern Asia, establish new partnerships and strengthen relations with the region’s leading players. “Foreign companies looking for a share of India’s tourism market should visit as many travel trade shows and events as possible in the country. ITB India in Mumbai offers a first-class opportunity in that respect. There are a number of small events and trade shows also worth visiting in many parts of the country and in regional cities“, is travel analyst Muqbil’s advice. However, any new business partners should be carefully scrutinised before an agreement is signed. “Companies who make big promises but ultimately do not deliver should at all costs be avoided“, the tourism expert says.

ITB India is taking place from 11 to 13 September 2024 and gathers leading travel industry companies and international exhibitors from the MICE, leisure, corporate business and travel tech sectors. At the ITB India 2024 Conference, representatives and speakers from leading companies, among them Agoda, Booking.com, Cleartrip, Thomas Cook India Limited, are due to attend.