BackIndia’s travel market to grow 18% in 2013: Report
Gross travel bookings to reach $28.8 billion in 2015 as compared to the current $19.6 billion, says PhocusWright
Premium(Hindustan Times)
New Delhi: India’s travel market is projected to grow 18% in 2013 to reach $23.2 billion, faster than last year’s 11% pace, helped by increased train fares, fleet expansion by airlines and new supply of hotel rooms, according to travel research firm PhocusWright Inc.
That includes the online travel market, which is poised to log a 27% increase in revenue to touch $8.8 billion, PhocusWright said in a report released this week. The pace of growth is 1 percentage point slower than last year’s.
The forecast is good news for an economy that’s struggling to recover from its slowest pace of growth in a decade while airlines have been battling heavy debt and rising operational costs. The depreciating rupee, which has weakened 7% against the dollar since the start of June, makes it a cheaper destination to visit for foreign travellers.
The long-term growth outlook for India’s travel market, too, remains robust. Gross travel bookings will reach $28.8 billion in 2015 as compared to the current $19.6 billion, and online gross bookings are estimated to touch $12.5 billion, up 80% over 2012, said the report.
“In local currency, the travel segment including rail, air and car rental grew by double digit, between 10-13% in 2012, as compared to a year ago period," said Chetan Kapoor, PhoCusWright’s Asia-Pacific research analyst. “Though the air travel market saw a double digit growth of 13% because of high air fares even as the air passenger traffic went down by 2%, on an average, last year, the hotel segment recorded the lowest growth of around 8% in the year."
“Hotel segment growth has been impacted by variety of reasons, most prominently, the dip in air passenger traffic. It had an impact on how the Indian travellers move around," said Kapoor. “It affected the hotel occupancy rates and hotels had to resort to lower average daily rates. That, in turn, affected the hotel industry’s earnings overall."
The report said except hotels, all other segments of the travel market will continue to experience growth in double digits this year.
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