FOXTROTS 

 

Fox – sly.  Trots – left-leaning (Trotsky) plus its more insalubrious meaning.  Foxtrots – leading the industry in a dance. 

 

 

2007 January 22

 

 

 


India. Travel spending confusion. 

 

 

New date from the World Tourism Organisation on
India’s travel spending supports the evidence that statistics lie. 

 

Earlier figures indicated that
India‘s travel deficit (amount spent on outbound travel by residents minus amount spent in
India by inbound visitors) increased substantially in 2005. 

 

New figures – in theory final – indicate a near-completely-different outlook. 

 

To reach these totals WTO adds up amounts spent in other destinations by travellers from
India (or, depending on the destination, Indian-citizen travellers, who may live in
India or other countries) but takes
India’s own figures for spending by foreign visitors in
India. 

 

This usually means that figures for outbound-spend will change – not only because different periods of time as measured, which is understood, but sometimes new figures are received for periods past. 

 

Usually, inbound-spend does not change much – because of the single source – with only currency fluctuations causing differences. 

 

But in 2005? The WTO reports a growth of 17% in spend by visitors to US$7.4bn – but based on data the WTO released earlier, growth calculates to 54%. 

 

There has also been changes in the data given for outbound spend – but not so great as for inbound. 

 

The main result of these changes is that travel is no longer in deficit. There is actually a surplus – visitors to
India spent US$1.5bn more than Indians travelling overseas. 

 

The other significant change is that this indicates that outbound travel from
India is not growing as fast as has been reported – or as believed. Although current reported growth on spending – 12% – is fast, it is below general conception of the market, which is more like 20% and above. 

 

Current data indicates that in 2005 visitors in
India spent 26% more than
India residents spent overseas. 

 

 

end