DNA Edit: Wanderlust - When it comes to leisure travel, India is at the top

India may have slid a few notches on the World Happiness Index, but we aren’t a nation of glum faces. Our happiness, it seems, lies in leisure travel: to explore new places and cultures and broaden our horizon. The World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Economic Impact 2019 report states that Indians are top spenders when it comes to leisure tourism and travel. In terms of countrywide contribution of travel and tourism to GDP, we have beaten America and China hands down. India holds the top spot for spending 94 per cent of its total GDP contribution to travel and tourism on leisure, followed by Mexico, Thailand, Spain and Brazil. Indians love to travel both within the country and abroad. The UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) estimates that the number of Indian outbound tourists will be over 50 million by 2022. A rapidly growing younger population combined with a burgeoning middle class has contributed to the surge in tourism. What more, Indians are willing to spend because of high disposable incomes. In 2018, travel and tourism contributed 9.2 per cent of India’s GDP. Most of it, about 87 per cent, came from domestic travel while 13 per cent was on international leisure travel. Interestingly, Indians do not believe in mixing business with pleasure. That explains why the country lags in business travel with only 5.2 per cent of travel spend in 2018 going to work-related trips. Given its mind-boggling diversities, India has tremendous tourism potential. It needs sustained marketing initiatives to showcase the country to the world at large.