Investing in Leisure in India: Exploring the Untapped Potential
The article evaluates the past performance and potential that leisure destinations hold for hotel development, and why hotel investors must look at investing in leisure destinations across India more actively.
India is well on its way to be the third-largest economy in the world after China and the USA and the direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to the country's GDP is forecast to grow by 7.2% per annum from `2,478.2 billion (2.2% of GDP in 2014) to `5,339.2 billion (2.5% of GDP) by 2025¹. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), leisure travel spends (inbound and domestic) generated 83.5% of direct Travel & Tourism GDP in 2014 compared to 16.5% from business travel spends. During the same period, domestic travel spending generated 81.4% of direct Travel & Tourism GDP compared to only 18.6% for visitor exports ( i.e foreign visitor spends/interna -tional tourism receipts).
