The sandy beaches of Baga and the arid valleys and mountains of Israel couldn’t be further apart, but for Vinish, it is almost as if the battle has come home. Vinish, who runs AVM Tours and Travels a stone's throw away from the bustling beach in Goa, was looking forward to a bumper year as the tourist season starts in autumn, but the guns and rockets roaring in a faraway land may just be a wee bit dampener to his best-laid plans.
“Israelis form a sizable chunk of tourists to Goa,” said Vinish, “Though they are mainly budget backpackers, this year we were supposed to see the first set of chartered flights with high-end tourists from Israel. But now, it seems, they may cancel, with war having broken out.”
With Russian tourists, the biggest foreign tourist category in Goa, having whittled down considerably since the Ukraine war last year, Vinish is hoping against hope that the Israeli charters don’t go the same way.
While the uncertainty over foreign travellers still abound — if it is Russians and Israelis in Goa, in the Golden Triangle of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur the worry is over whether the recessionary trends in the UK economy will reduce the number of arrivals from there.
Yet, despite all that, optimism abounds that the 2023 winter will be a big bang season for Indian tourism — a year of not just returning to normalcy after the last few years wiped out by Covid-19, but surpassing previous records, as well.
While 2023 will be the first full year of recovery and hence there is a lot riding on it, the better-than-imagined performance of the past several months has perked up expectations for this winter’s ‘season’ — except for the hill stations in the north, a large part of India’s tourist trail, from Taj Mahal in Agra to the backwaters of Kerala garner maximum footfalls during the cooler months starting about now till end of March. Presently valued at approximately 15.7 lakh crore rupees, India’s tourism industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.47% through 2027.
“Tourism overall in India remains under penetrated,” said Puneet Dhawan, vice president (India & South Asia) of the world’s second biggest hotel chain, Accor. “There is a lot of opportunity in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.”
With a veritable tourism boom expected, the hospitality industry is on a hiring spree. Talent consultants TeamLease say up to 80,000 new jobs are being created in this segment. Those opening new hotels include the likes of ITC, Lemon Tree and Accor (which has brands like Novotel and ibis).
In some of the tourism hot spots like Rishikesh, cost of popular activities like paragliding and white water rafting have already seen an upward spiral, while rack rates for hotel rooms at World Cup Cricket venues, on right now, has seen unprecedented spiralling.
The lure of events is another strong tourism driver. “Major corporate conferences and festivals will play a major role,” said Craig Michael Monteiro, founder of of Marketd, a hotel sales consulting firm. While cities like Ahmedabad, Dharamshala, Hyderabad and Kolkata are seeing a rush due to the ongoing Cricket World Cup, Goa has a plethora of events lined up through the season — from National Games which starts later this month to the International Film Festival of India and the Sunburn music festival.
In fact, the sunny state looks set to have a stellar tourist season — its new Mopa airport in North Goa along with the new cable stayed bridge linking North and South Goa has improved accessibility, The ibis Styles boutique hotel in Vagator, which opened last week, is only the first amongst a bunch of new hotels set to open in the coming months, expected to add about 3,000 new branded rooms to the inventory.
“Goa now has a considerable lead in the inventory of luxury category rooms which has helped in soliciting and securing big Fat Indian Weddings and Corporate Conferencing,” added Monteiro.
Taking overall numbers of both foreign and domestic tourists, Goa beats even the Taj Mahal to be the No.1 tourist destination in the country, and not just in the season. Travel aggregator agoda.com had made a list based on customer bookings and search earlier during the monsoon period, pointing out how Indians are travelling much more than ever before, and not just during the summer holidays and the winter festive period. According to its data, Goa was the most in-demand destination within the country, followed by Manali, Ooty and Nainital.
In fact, market estimates are that Goa gets 10 lakh domestic tourists a day, but the number of branded hotel rooms on offer there are way less. “There is a mismatch between demand and supply,” pointed out Dhawan, “which means there is a huge opportunity for the hospitality industry to grow.” If the Israelis don’t turn up, Vinish could probably find solace in this increasing number of desi tourists.
