Bleisure or exotic experience, more international travellers to land in India

Pune: While Indians eye foreign locales during the festive break, international tourists from the US, the UK, Germany and SAARC countries are hoping to vacation in India between November 2023 and February 2024.
Companies catering to inbound travel are experiencing a surge in enquiries and bookings for the period between November 2023 and February 2024 — the peak foreign tourist arrival (FTA) period in India.Representatives from travel firms have reported a 40% to 60% increase in queries, with expectations of higher bookings when the season arrives.
Nikhil Thakurdas, CEO, Odyssey Tours and Travels, said that international business travellers are extending their trips to experience India’s popular tourist destinations — a trend known as bleisure (business travel mixed with leisure).
“India’s increasing global prominence, partially attributed to the G20 Presidency, is drawing the attention of foreign travellers. Furthermore, now India has 42 Unesco World Heritage sites — the latest inclusions being the Hoysala temples of Belur, Halebid and Somananthpura in Karnataka and Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan. The full restoration of the e-visa system has also eased entering India,” he added.
In fact, advance bookings for the upcoming season appear to have reached levels more than even pre-2019.
Ajit Patil, proprietor, Landmaster Holidays, said, “We have seen a significant hike in enquiries from foreign tourists wanting to explore India during January and February 2024. The traction is much more than the Covid period, when travel faced a lull. Enquiries aside, bookings by international clients have gone up for the January-February period next year. We have seen a nearly 30% to 40% increase in enquiries and bookings in comparison to even the pre-Covid period of 2019. This is despite the high airfares.”
He said that most foreigners plan trips to India since the country caters to all types of tourists, including luxury travellers.
“Also, we have seen many enquiries from the US, including NRIs planning to visit their parents and relatives in India. Many of them had been unable to visit home for a few years due to the pandemic,” he added.
Makrand Angal, proprietor, Go Holidays, said that NRIs are interested in visiting their parents in India.
“Once here, these travellers combine their visit with tours to popular destinations. There has been a general increase in enquiries (in comparison to 2019) from international clients showing interest in visiting India from December 2023 onwards. Most queries are from the US and Europe.”
Experts said that many from Europe prefer to visit temples in south India, while those from the UK mostly opt to visit historical places in Rajasthan — and some others are keen to visit Goa alone.
Sachin Goswami, director (operations), Vimianos Travel, an inbound tour company in Delhi, said, “In the upcoming period, there is a higher demand from individual budget travellers. Nearly 70% of such tourists prefer visiting Rajasthan and then extending their trip to nearby hot spots like Agra and Varanasi. While the other 30% show interest in visiting south India, such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu.”