This holiday season, in-bound tourism saw a marked shift in preferred destinations with North India receiving more footfalls in comparison to the South, according to a survey
People plan to refrain from travelling overseas in wake of recent terror attacks. Inbound tourism is likely to register an increase of up to 10 per cent during this Christmas-New Year holiday season as travellers plan to refrain from going overseas in wake of recent terror attacks in most sought after global tourist destinations of Bangkok and Paris, according to a just-concluded survey by industry body ASSOCHAM.
“Tourist hotspots in northern, central India and in majority of the coastal belt are expected to see influx of about 15 lakh domestic and foreign tourists as they find it both cheap and safe,” noted a survey-cum-analysis on ‘Year-end tourism trends in India: 2015,’ conducted under the aegis of its Social Development Foundation.
“Tourism, which is the mainstay of the economy in Andaman & Nicobar, and in states like Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh together with the states in the north-east are likely to do brisk business and attract tourists in large numbers,” said DS Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM while releasing the findings of the chamber’s sector specific survey-cum-analysis.
“Though terrorist attacks can occur anywhere, but certain latest cases are likely to significantly impact outbound tourism in a negative way and this trend is expected to revive the domestic tourism sector which has been facing a lull due to growing inflation, rising airfares, high hotel room rates, fluctuations in the value of rupee against foreign currencies and other related factors,” said Rawat, “It is also likely to boost foreign exchange earnings.”
The ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation had interacted with about 500 travel enthusiasts (working professionals) in the age group of 25-60 years in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, lucknow, Mumbai and Pune in past four weeks. Majority of these respondents (60 per cent) said they have planned to go on a vacation this year-end.
Over half of these said they plan to visit northern tourist destinations of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and others as certain parts of southern India have recently been hit by unprecedented rains.
Of the remaining, many said they plan to visit Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Port Blair and other locations for their vacations.
Only handful (8-10 per cent) respondents said they plan to go abroad for vacations to Dubai, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Sri lanka, Singapore and other such affordable and ‘safe’ destinations.