According to a new report by the OECD, outbound travel from India has turned into a growth driver for global tourism. Fast growth in the middle class and better air connectivity across the country are the main causes of the exponential increase. The report narrated that the recovery pattern of the tourism sector in the Asia Pacific region had been different. At a time when outbound travel from China is picking up, local tourism is benefiting, and inbound tourism runs significantly which is less than pre-pandemic levels, thereby constraining broader economic recovery in China. Meanwhile, for global tourism Indian tourists are poised to become a key growth engine. The Brazil G20 Presidency and the Italy G7 Presidency have also placed human capital and skills in tourism on their 2024 work streams, drawing on the achievements of the India and Indonesia G20 Presidencies.
Tourism has bounced back hard around the world from big falls caused by the COVID-19 pandemic which sent tourism flows tumbling in 2020-21 after six decades of continuous growth. This rebound is crucial in one sense to that of encouraging growth and well-being.However, it remains uneven. Against the background of increased geopolitical tensions, cost-of-living pressures, and climatic events, this creates serious challenges for this sector. That proactive, forward-facing policies should drive toward a stronger, maintainable, and comprehensive tourism future is therefore imperative.
In OECD countries, the ones with data series, tourism’s direct contribution to GDP recovered to 3.9 percent in 2022, just half a percentage less than the level in 2019. Evidence suggests that the recovery has continued since then. By the end of 2024, complete recovery would be registered globally, driven by positive traveler and business sentiment-upped travel in the Asia Pacific region.Once the imbalance in demand and supply gets resolved, growth will return to pre-pandemic trends.
The report of the OECD thus verifies the fact that Indian tourists are going to take a main role in the global scenario of tourism, and this is a paradigm shift when the country is emerging as a powerhouse in the tourism industry.
