The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, Sultanate of Oman, along with Oman Air, Magic Travels, and W Muscat, invites the travel trade to attend a webinar on the destination and the product offerings. Get valuable insights and updates for your clients on July 29 at 3pm IST and stand a chance to win exciting prizes! For more information, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532. 

According to Allied Market Research, the global business travel market size was valued at $689.70 billion in 2021, and is estimated to reach $2.1 trillion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 9.5% from 2022 to 2031. The trending factors responsible for fueling the business travel market include bleisure travel (business + leisure), IoT (internet of things), development of smart hotels, virtual reality for hotel bookings, and personalisation. 

In June, India’s domestic air passenger traffic increased by 5.76% to 13.2 million from 12.4 million in the corresponding month last year, according to the monthly data released by DGCA. IndiGo led the market with 80.86 lakh passengers, holding a dominant 60.5% market share, followed by Air India and Vistara, operated by the Tata Group, which carried 17.47 lakh and 12.84 lakh travellers, respectively. 

Union Minister of State for Tourism, Suresh Gopi said that Tripura should come forward with a competitive mindset and advised to utilise time properly from September to March as it has been identified as peak tourism hour in the state. The government is focusing and working on different schemes for spiritual and adventure tourism and asked Tripura to work in this direction. “Tripura can be marked as a model in the entire country if the state approaches in this direction”, he said.  

WTTC projects that Travel & Tourism will contribute almost INR 21.15 trillion to the Indian economy in 2024, an increase of 21% from 2019. Jobs are predicted to increase by 2.45 million this year, equivalent to one in 11 jobs in India. International visitor spending is expected to grow more than 17%, to reach INR 2.85 trillion, while domestic visitor spending is projected to continue growing this year, with a 9.6% increase to reach more than INR 16 trillion. 

Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO, DIAL, said, “We need to increase that capacity of the Delhi airport because we expect that the passenger growth will be at least 8-10 per cent. We have to be ahead of the curve. Last year, the airport handled close to 20 million international passengers. We have a capacity of 22 million and that is only a headroom of 10 per cent.” 

KB Kachru, President, HAI, said, “There is a long queue of hotels to be classified. Unless they are classified and approved by the MOT, they cannot reap the benefits. Hence, we should look at the possibilities of creating a much better system for classification, so that whatever benefits are sanctioned by the government, investors and developers can get those promptly.”

Highlighting the future prospects, Union Civil Aviation Minister, Kinjrapu Rammohan Naidu stated, “Our vision is to transform India into a leading aviation hub. The Indian MRO industry is projected to become a $4 billion industry by 2030. This policy change is a crucial step towards building a strong ecosystem for MRO services, driving innovation, and ensuring sustainable growth.” 

Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, said, “India’s Travel & Tourism sector is bouncing back with remarkable vigour, driven by a surge in domestic tourism. The Indian government’s ambition to facilitate 100 million inbound tourists at the anniversary of India’s independence in 2047, as part of the @2047 ambition, will supercharge the Indian economy and make India one of the world’s most popular travel destinations.” 

Tamil Nadu Travel Expo will be held in Madurai from 20 to 22 September this year at Grand Madurai by GRT Hotels. One of the important aspects and focus of the expo will be to turn Tamil Nadu into a favoured destination for weddings. Nearly 250 people from across the country and abroad will take part in the expo.