Indian tourists continue to take lead as China fights Covid-19 surge

Although China eased border curbs recently, many countries are still wary of allowing Chinese travellers

For long, Chinese travellers topped tourism charts across the world, particularly Southeast Asia. But that seems to be changing. As China battles rising coronavirus cases, destinations such as Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Australia and South Africa continue to tap India to fire up their Covid-hit tourism industry.

According to a report in The Economic Times, various markets had been focusing a lot more on India last year considering the diverse population base. They are also trying to make up for the loss of Chinese tourists, who once dominated the charts.

Although China eased border curbs recently, after abruptly abandoning its Covid Zero policy, many countries are wary of opening up to Chinese travellers. Countries like Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Qatar, France, Spain and Sweden have either introduced new Covid-19 measures or tightened the existing ones for arrivals from China.

Isada Saovaros, director at Tourism Authority of Thailand’s Mumbai office, told ET that India has played a very important role in the country’s tourism recovery.

Thailand recorded more than 11 million foreign tourist arrivals between January 1 last year and December 29, and India topped the list of tourist arrivals by air. Malaysia was the top source market with over 1 million tourists and India closely followed with 957,452 travellers, the report said.

These numbers, however, do not include migrants, UN officials, and non-nationalities.
“Currently 199 weekly flights operate from Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. In a few months, flights are set to commence from Gaya, Ahmedabad and Jaipur,” Saovaros said.

While the Thai official believes that China will once again top the charts in a few months, India will continue to remain a priority market.

Nishant Kashikar, country manager, India and Gulf for Tourism Australia, said the appetite for travel among Indians is at an “all-time high”.

“With efforts to increase connectivity and travel to Australia and facilitate the tourist visa process, we expect the visitation numbers to reach the pre-Covid levels of 400,000 by June 2023, if not prior,” he added.

GB Srithar, regional director for India, Middle East, South Asia and Africa at Singapore Tourism Board, said India was the second-largest visitor source market after Indonesia for Singapore last year, contributing over 600,000 travellers.​​​​