Is 2023 marking the rise of UK-India tourism?

After experiencing lockdowns and restrictions from the previous health crisis, travelling has never been so trendy and wanted. With the worldwide upheaval travel documents and visas have been made easier to request and access.

Along with easier administrative processes, customers are travelling more and despite the current economic context are still looking for exotic and vibrant spots to take a break. According to a recent survey led by the online flight booking website Kayak, travel from the UK to India has surpassed pre-pandemic rates.

The bookings to India have grown by 29 per cent compared to 2019 at the same time period and a rise of 48 per cent for flight searches.

In 2017 a World Travel and Tourism Council report, India was already set to be the fourth largest travel and tourism economy by 2027, with a 7.4 per cent projected compound annual growth rate.

In their latest 2023 report, Julia Simpson, CEO and President of WTTC has confirmed how great and encouraging it was to experience such a travel boost after a few years of disruptions.

Moreover, she has stated that in their recent Economic Impact Research, it was shown that India could overtake Germany and become the third world's most powerful Travel and Tourism market by 2023.

As for the 2023 UK tourism forecast it is expected to reach 35.1 million visits, according to Visit Britain, corresponding to 86 per cent of the 2019 rates and 18 per cent higher than in 2022. Spending on said tourism would only reach 87 per cent of 2019 rates considering the inflationist context.

VFS Global has seen an unprecedented rise in visa requests to India with more than 200,000 e-visas applications processed globally between January and November last year. In Europe itself there has been a 30 per cent increase in applications compared to 2019.

Regarding Brexit and the easiness of access for Indian citizens to travel to the UK, it should not be affected due to the pre-existing Indo-British partnership.

In 2017, the High Commissioner of India to the UK, Kumar Sinha reminded us that the political relationship goes back 400 years before European Union agreements and thus access and travel cannot be made more difficult or be affected.

In a recent study by Economist Intelligence Unit revealed global tourism arrivals should increase by 30 per cent following the 60 per cent growth from 2022, despite the fact that they will remain below pre-pandemic levels.

The delay in recovery triggered by sanctions on Russia and the economic downturn will be slow to overcome. Although as China is reopening its borders, the future of global tourism and especially the UK to India routes will be made more accessible.

Moreover this upcoming year India will be the centre of many major events and some of them linking both countries. Thus travel from the UK is being operated with new Air India routes from London Gatwick to Indian cities and increased services from London Heathrow to New Delhi.

Hosting the G-20 Summit, Men's Hockey World Cup and 2023 Cricket World Cup, India is expecting an intense travel growth rate from all over the world but especially from the UK.