Outbound travel from India emerges as future growth engine for global tourism

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Outbound travel from India is emerging as a future growth engine for global tourism, with the rapid expansion of the middle classes and scaling up of air connectivity across the country, a new report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has revealed.

In Asia Pacific, the recovery of the tourism sector is different.

While outbound travel from China has picked up and domestic tourism is expanding, inbound tourism remains significantly down on pre-pandemic levels and is constraining wider economic recovery in China, said the report.

On the other hand, Indian tourists are emerging as a future growth engine for global tourism.

"The Brazil G20 Presidency and the Italy G7 Presidency have also put human capital and skills issues in tourism as priority issues in the respective workstreams in 2024, building on outcomes from the India and Indonesia G20 Presidencies," the OECD report mentioned.

Globally, tourism has rebounded strongly following sharp declines triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic that led tourism flows to plummet in 2020-21, following six decades of consistent growth, supporting economic growth and well-being.

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"However, the recovery is uneven, and rising geopolitical tensions, cost-of-living pressures, and climate-related events bring new challenges. Active, forward-looking policies are needed to step up efforts to build a more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive future for the sector," the report stressed.

Tourism's direct contribution to GDP had recovered to 3.9 per cent in 2022 in OECD countries with available data, half a percentage point below 2019 levels, and "the evidence suggests that the recovery has continued since".

A full global recovery is projected by the end of 2024, buoyed by positive traveller and business sentiment, and pick up in travel in Asia Pacific, with growth anticipated to return to pre-pandemic trends as demand and supply imbalances continue to unwind.

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