By Sanjay Narula
Vice President of TAAI and Co-Chairman Convention, Kunming
India and China are the two most populous countries and very important emerging economic powerhouse for the whole world, who also shares a significant trade and politically cordial relationships. The flow of business travellers between the two countries is large, however the genuine tourist is a very small decimal point. Despite big campaigns and e-visa facilities only 2.4 lakh Chines tourists visited India last year against 14 lakh Indians who visited China.
Countries all over the world are making a big pitch for attracting Chinese tourists as their numbers have crossed 144 million last year, the highest in the world it is just enough for India to get 10 per cent of Chinese tourists in five years which could be about 14 lakhs taking our current overall number of global tourist arrivals to a promising and significant level of what it is now.
While the international outbound leisure travel from India in comparison may be at an early stage of development, India’s economic and demographic indicators, together with societal changes, point to it being a market of huge potential in the near future. We believe it has the potential to become a multi-billion dollar opportunity, rivaling the Chinese outbound travel opportunity capturing headlines today, which has seen a rapid development of its airlines, airports, hotels, destinations and the broader travel and tourism industry, hence there is a learning to gained here and we as a source market can emerge as a significant driver of future economic and socio political policy formulation.
By 2025 there will be 13.9 million international leisure departures from India, generating 19.4 million Indian visitor arrivals overseas (given traveller propensity to visit more than one city/country when they travel), delivering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.4%. (Source CAPA report).
This team of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has taken upon itself very key and important challenge to explore new venues for tour operators to exchange business between India and China. Kunming is yet a lesser known destination to the India traveller with great potential. Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, is known as ‘the City of Eternal Spring’ for its pleasant climate and flowers that bloom all year long.
As southwest China’s transportation hub, the city plays a significant role for connecting Southeast Asia and China. The city also provides links to many popular destinations elsewhere in Yunnan such as Dali, Lijiang, and Shangri-La.
I look forward to welcome all of to Kunming to discover, learn and engage in business and profit from the deliberation and session at the event.
Welcome to Kunming and Welcome to the 65th TAAI Annual Convention 2018!!
