India is 3rd highest in spending from domestic visitors

WTTC’s Power and Performance ranking has placed India at the third spot when it comes to domestic spending, after China and USA respectively. The report revealed that the absolute growth of domestic spending was 2.6 times higher than that of visitor exports over the seven years to 2017. At the global level, domestic spending has grown on average by 4 per cent per year between 2011 and 2017. Over half of the absolute growth in domestic Travel & Tourism spending over the past seven years has come from China alone. In well-established international tourism markets such as Spain, Turkey and UAE, the share of domestic spending has fallen over the years from 2011-17. Iraq and Rwanda took the top two spots in performance rankings for domestic tourism spending across the seven years.

Domestic spending is the money spent by residents of a country for both business and leisure trips that take place in that country. Nearly three-quarters of all Travel & Tourism spending (72.3 per cent) is from domestic tourists. While money from domestic tourism is not new money to a country, its use in terms of informing residents of countries’ natural and cultural attributes and engendering a source of pride is essential for social harmony. Domestic tourism is also important in spreading visitor spending to shoulder and off-season months and in dispersing visitors to less internationally-promoted regions and attractions.