INDIA can be the new outbound travel powerhouse, replacing the Chinese market on which most Asia Pacific destinations rely.
ForwardKeys, in its new report released during the just concluded World Travel Market in London said, “Although India’s size as an international outbound market is largely attributable to its significant global diaspora, its middle-class population is growing, and the number of outbound leisure travelers from the country is increasing as a result.”
The report added, “Moreover, while India’s intra-regional outbound travel market is relatively small, it had experienced more growth (+10.4 percent) than any of the other major Asia Pacific outbound markets —both international and intraregional—over the five years before the pandemic. Now that the country has fully reopened, ForwardKeys expects its development as an interregional outbound market to accelerate.”
Beijing continues to implement a zero-Covid policy such that travel in and out of China’s boarders remain severely restricted. “[Even] if China were to reopen next year, the economic challenges currently facing the country—including a property market crisis and issues relating to the pandemic—would result in a slow travel recovery, particularly in the long-haul segment. Until China’s outbound travel market fully reactivates, regional destinations that had developed a dependency on Chinese tourists in the years preceding the pandemic will need to shift their attention to other important markets,” said the report.
Arrivals growing
In 2019, China was the Philippines’s second top source market for tourists with 1.74-million arrivals, accounting for 21 percent of the 8.26 million total arrivals.
Meanwhile, Indians have a high interest in the Philippines, not just because of the country’s wealth of natural attractions and business opportunities, but also because of the large local Filipino-Indian population.
Data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) showed India as the seventh largest source market for tourists from February 10 to November 8, despite the absence of direct flights to the Philippines. Visitors from India accounted for 2.04 percent or close to 40,000 of the 1.96-million total foreign arrivals for the period.
Pioneering flag carrier Philippine Airlines flew between Mumbai and Manila from 2010 to 2013, but cancelled the route due to poor demand. Indian nationals are required to secure a visitor visa before traveling to the Philippines, unless they have an existing visa from the United States, Japan, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, or Schengen countries. So far, PAL has no plans to add more international routes.
Other replacement markets
ForwardKeys noted other possible alternative tourism market sources like Thailand, Japan, and South Korea. Prior to the pandemic, South Korea was the top source market for tourists in the Philippines. As of November 8, South Korea ranked second at 272,299 arrivals; while Japan is in sixth place at 73,054 visitors, and Thailand is in 18th place at 12,295 visitors.
Other top tourist markets for the Philippines were: the US, which ranked first place at 373,372 (19.04 percent of total); Australia 93,011 (4.74 percent); Canada 85,784 (4.37 percent); the UK 74,777 (3.81 percent); and Singapore 38,270 (1.95 percent).
Founded in 2010, ForwardKeys compiles and provides air ticketing data to tourism organizations, hotels, and retailers. Its latest report is based on actual air tickets as of October 18, 2022, combining historic results and booked tickets until the yearend. These bookings showed that arrivals in the Philippines was just 55 percent behind its 2019 arrivals of 8.26 million, compared to the entire Asia Pacific region which was still 76 percent of its pre-pandemic arrivals. (See, “PHL among most visited Southeast Asian destinations,” in the BusinessMirror, November 9, 2022.)