Travel industry in India to reach USD 136 billion mark by 2021: Report

The domestic travel industry spend is set to clip at 13 per cent annually to reach USD 136 billion by 2021, says a report. During 2018, the domestic travel industry stood at USD 94 billion with around 2 billion domestic and international trips, according to a joint report by Bain & Company and Google India.

The momentum is expected to continue and the industry will grow at an annual rate of 13 per cent to USD 136 billion by 2021, it added. Of the total size of the market, USD 24 billion will come from online travel bookings alone over the next three years, as according to the report over 86 per cent of travellers are influenced by online channels, especially online videos with 21 per cent of those polled getting influenced by this.

But the online usage is low as usage drops between research (86 per cent online influence) and booking phases (40 per cent offline bookings) as many users have a marked distrust to use online channels to make bookings, especially around payment and pricing terms and booking experience compared with offline channels, says the survey. In the booking and sharing phase, the report said nearly 60 per cent book transport and lodging online, and over 50 per cent share feedback online with social media being the dominant platform.

However, the report notes that there are about 160 million non-transacting active Internet users in the country and also only 5 per cent of online travellers are from small towns.