By 2022, 37% of Indian Outbound Travel Will be to GCC Countries: Report

By 2022, 37 percent of all outbound travel by Indians will be to Gulf countries, according to a new data.

According to a new data published ahead of the Arabian Travel Market 2019 (ATM 2019), over the next five years, Indians traveling to the GCC will book an extra 10.8 million hotel room nights.

The report, published by Colliers International, stated that around nine million Indians will travel to the GCC by 2022 – 37% of India’s total outbound travelers—for business, occupation, or other purposes.

Moreover, the number of Indian tourists will reach approximately 22.5 million worldwide in the year 2018, and according to UNWTO report, that number may increase by 122% to reach over 50 million by 2022.

Indians are also considered as one of the highest spenders when traveling abroad. It’s being now being predicted that spending by Indian tourists will increase from $23 billion in 2018 to $45 billion by 2022, the report said.

Speaking about Indian tourists, Danielle Curtis, Exhibition Director ME, Arabian Travel Market said, “Despite recent weak rupee exchange rates, which have seen the rupee lose around 14 percent of its value against the US dollar over the last 12 months, the Indian outbound market has continued to grow at an average annual growth rate of 10-12 percent over the last seven years,” a statement quoted her as saying.

“The GCC has benefited from this trend with Indian travelers’ willingness and ability to spend on outbound travel, supported by the country’s pace-setting seven percent GDP growth and a new generation of leisure attractions in the GCC, as well as increased business opportunities and relaxed visa regulations for Indian nationals,” Curtis said.

According to an earlier report, in 2017 around 150,000 Indians came to the UAE, the Times of India said citing numbers issued by the Indian government. A total of 374,000 Indians came to the Gulf region last year, a decrease from 2015 when approximately 760,000 Indians sought employment in the Gulf region, the report said, calling it a “steady decline.”

However, in another report, the PTI said that Dubai Tourism has seen 7.5 percent jump at the end of Q3 2017.

The relaxed visa restrictions and the introduction of a free two-day transit visa may have produced this growth, the statement noted.