Sunil Sethi: Where Indians go on holiday

Is there a correlation between those enticingly low fares to holiday destinations and the govt forcing pvt carriers to cut back sudden hikes in fares?

Is there a correlation between those enticingly low fares to holiday destinations blinking on every laptop screen and the government recently forcing private carriers to cut back sudden hikes in air fares? Of course there is. To start with, the tempting offers to Bangkok, Goa and Colombo are not always what they seem. Click on the asterix and all kinds of taxes and surcharges pop up; investigate further on the toll-free numbers and the wonderfully priced “honeymoon specials” to the Maldives and Koh Samui or anywhere at home turn out to be a three-night stand only. Awkward timings, closed returns and ever-changing prices on spot bookings are just the start of the hurdle race for jetlagged honeymooners.

Each peak season flight to Goa I have ever boarded is a sort of “mehndi express”, full of jangling bangles and canoodling couples. There is, however, a discernible shift in mood on the journey there and the trip back. On the way out, the newly-weds are in sparkling and buoyant form but the return is often a litany of complaint against the broken promises of the travel trade. The hotel was miles from the beach, the food was rotten and taxis overpriced.

But, still, the Indian in search of the short break or dream vacation is logging on. She’s willing to shell out more and literally be taken for a ride. Gone are the days when a family holiday meant visiting a maiden aunt in Kanpur or returning to the “native place” in Kerala. When Bollywood made movies with titles like Evening in Paris and Love in Tokyo in the 1960s, most Indians didn’t have a ghost of a chance to go tramping round world capitals. Now Hindi films find locations in Turkey, China and New Zealand — and their audiences are in hot pursuit.

Nothing has changed as radically in the last couple of decades as our holiday plans. According to a handbook published by the Brussels-based European Travel Commission last year, India is one of the fastest-growing outbound travel markets in the world. International tourism departures from India grew from 3.7 million in 1997 to 9.8 million in 2007. Other sources in the travel industry project this number to cross 16 million in 2011. Where one saw parties of Japanese tourists following the tour leader’s raised flag at international airports, one now sees Indians. At Singapore airport recently, the long line for the Mumbai-bound flight was almost entirely composed of nearly a hundred middle-class Gujaratis from three neighbourhoods in Rajkot. Did food present a problem for the strict vegetarians, I asked the group leader. “Not at all,” he cheerfully replied, opening a plastic box and offering me a crisp khakhra. “Each group member brings a supply for five days. We give them a printed list of food items they are allowed. No pickles. That we buy in local Indian stores.” A thrifty dietary regime, however, is not reflected in the money Indians spend on overseas travel. International tourism expenditure was up (according to the same handbook) from $1.3 billion in 1997 to $8.2 billion in 2008 and is growing by leaps and bounds.

Latest figures from the Ministry of Tourism also confirm a galloping growth in domestic tourism, up from 563 million in 2008 to 650 million last year, with Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Rajasthan being the top five draws. The majority of Indian tourists, it seems, are not lured by beach holidays. Tourist destinations like Goa and Kerala are for higher income travellers. What the growing hordes want to see is the Taj Mahal, forts, palaces and religious sites. They prefer simple Indian food over culinary adventures.

Airlines may complain over controlled pricing but the rate at which the Indian holidaymaker is hitting the road — and taking to the skies — can only put more money in their pockets.