FCM Travel Solutions and KPMG today released industry first insights via a white paper titled “Business Travel in India” Emerging Trends & Opportunities. With business travel rapidly evolving, and travel gradually emerging as the second-largest area of controllable business spend for corporates, the paper delivers a comprehensive look at where and how business travellers in India are spending.
The report also details business travel spending in top 15 countries across multiple sectors over a period of five years. India is all poised to lead this growth and accordingly by 2030 business travel spending in India will have trebled from the present levels. Asia has become the world’s largest business-travel market, and trends suggest India’s significance within APAC will only grow with time.
Speaking on the occasion, Jaideep Ghosh, Partner and Head, Transport, Leisure and Sports, KPMG in India said, “Despite some recent economic speedbumps, the business travel market remains incredibly robust and dynamic with a number of countries such as India, China, Germany and Canada, growing at a remarkable rate. The report predicts that India will emerge as a leader in business travel spending over the next decade or so. In fact when one looks at India, one sees one of the highest growth rates in business travel in the entire world. If India continues on that trend, in another 15-20 years, it will surpass the U.S. as well and be second only to China. In fact India is statistically where China was close to 15 years back. It is clearly a story that no one is talking about yet, but it bears watching. On the horizon, we’ve identified trends, sectors and specifically markets prime amongst them being India that are seeing extraordinary growth and could very well turn into the potential business travel markets of the future.”
Also present at the event Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, Flight Centre Travel Group – India said, “In order to understand how emerging trends will impact business travel programs in the near future, it is first important to understand the perspective of business travellers today. Consequently for corporates, managing business travel is becoming increasingly complex, with changing traveler preferences, integration with mobile technology, and strategies adopted by travel suppliers. This white paper helps analyse the disruptive changes happening today and forecasts how they will impact managed travel processes, the Indian business traveller experience and their expectations in the near future. It also examines the impact of technology on the way business travellers would purchase products and services, thereby predicting leading trends until 2030.”
According to the paper, in 2015 India ranks as the 10th largest business travel market in the world spending a total of USD 29.6 billion. Moreover it is projected to be the most robust business travel market in APAC over the next five years and is estimated to grow at 12% CAGR over that period. With its improving economy and rising consumption, it is no surprise then that India will emerge as the next fastest growing market between 2017 and 2020.
[Source:- Travelweekly]
