South Asia boosts tourism outlook as experiential travel takes root
The Global Experiential Travel Market is now valued at $250 billion and it is projected to just about
double by 2032 which is just seven years from now, to virtually 500 billion or 470 billion. These numbers are based mostly on income from bookable excursions exercise and experiences. They do not embody the entire ancillary spend that goes on across the precise expertise itself.
Scott Wegener, Head of Asia Pacific at Tripadvisor, whereas addressing the viewers throughout the opening keynote at ITB India 2025 highlighted South Asia’s pivotal function in shaping international tourism progress. His subject of debate was “Experience-Driven Travel: Trends and Insights on what South Asia Travellers are Truly Seeking in 2025 and Beyond”.
Experiential travel the norm not a development
South Asia at the moment makes up 10% of that international quantity, so 25 billion. But the expectation is and all of the tendencies are telling us that South Asia’s proportion of that entire international spend goes to leap from 10% to fifteen% by 2032 so for South Asia, it’ll be valued at 70 billion by 2032 which is simply large. That means hundreds of thousands extra experiences, booked, posted and reviewed. No one within the room can afford to deal with experiential travel as a development. It’s the brand new norm, and the momentum will not be slowing.
“A recent trip advisor survey of our users found that of the global audience surveyed 85 % agreed that activities and experiences are an important part of their travel budget, and 84% agreed that they prioritize planned activities and experiences on their trip. We’ve been tracking these numbers for a while now, and they continue to climb, and we don’t expect them to kind of plateau or even decline.”
Indians prioritize deliberate actions
Experiences have moved from good to have into the important element of travel spend specializing in South Asia, the story is even stronger in India. “In terms of prioritizing on Trip experiences, 91% agreed that activities and experiences are an important part of their travel budget, and 92% agreed that they prioritize planned activities and experiences while they’re on their trip. India travellers are now the world’s most experience focused Travel Market.”
Post pandemic Travel has develop into a privilege
The pandemic had an enormous impact. Covid rewired priorities. Travel is not taken as a right. It’s not a given, It’s a privilege. The worth of well being, connection and that means is entrance and centre for travellers
Secondly, digital fatigue. Digital fatigue is actual. More and extra individuals are getting display burnout. They starvation for tactile face-to- face connection, experiences and that means greater than ever.
And third, the rising center class is rising quick. Nowhere is that this extra prevalent than proper right here in India,
rising disposable earnings plus international publicity is making experiential travel mainstream acceptable and anticipated. “India will be the world’s fifth largest outbound market by 2027 outbound trips will climb from 30 million in 2024 to over 50 million in 2030 again, only five years away.” These forces collectively aren’t simply altering travel locations. They’re altering the very DNA of the traveller.
Gen Z and millennials are the quickest rising middleclass
“Gen Z and millennials are the fastest growing middle-class segment driven by urbanization, higher education and think digital roots and digital connectivity, they will constitute 60% of South Asia’s travel spend.”
And simply to verify everybody’s acquainted with Gen Z and millennials, as of 2025 Gen Zs are aged between 13 to twenty-eight and millennials are aged between 29 and 44 so principally, we’re speaking about that age group between, say, 21 after they begin making impartial travel selections, until 44 are tremendous vital.
A era wired for experiences
Gen Z and millennials are actively looking for experiences that present significant, distinctive travel adventures that enable them to a immerse themselves within the tradition and stay like a neighborhood. They’re determined to expertise life as a neighborhood within the locations that they’ve travelled to, 84%
in the identical survey mentioned that they like off the overwhelmed path locations, and 79% say they might like to partake in a day within the lifetime of a neighborhood within the vacation spot that they are visiting. They are a era wired for expertise, not simply transactions.
Gen Z and millennials have a excessive propensity to plan and e-book their actions forward of their travel. They’re already all the time occupied with their planning, they usually wish to e-book upfront. They wish to know that they have this organized once more. India, Gen Z are millennials considerably over index in comparison with the worldwide common. In our survey, 65% in comparison with the worldwide common, of 46% say that they e-book or plan to e-book actions forward of their manufacturers who can provide simple, distinctive, partaking, walkable experiences and to win with this profitable, all the time planning era.
Looking on the Indian Market
12 million India customers that come to Trip Advisor each month
Tripadvisor have a wealthy information set of what India customers are literally , how they’re occupied with travel inspiration, planning and reserving. First of all, we’ll take a look at outbound travel tendencies.
From a global perspective
So, that is India customers on TripAdvisor worldwide locations. These are the highest 10 nations checked out by India customers on Trip Advisor throughout the month of January to June, 2025. So what we will see is Thailand, the UAE, Vietnam and Indonesia are surging for Indian travellers. My tackle it’s the travellers, and significantly this rising center class, there is a increased propensity of outbound travel, they usually’re trying and looking for regional proximity, cultural nuance and more and more subtle, skilled menus.
Then if we take a look at the highest 10 sights that India customers have been on Trip Advisor throughout the months of January to June 2025 we will see that this record consists primarily of out of doors nature parks, cultural websites, non secular websites and landmarks. Pre covid, this record would have been dominated by procuring locations and seashores. But now for India, travellers outbound, worldwide authenticity and journey are all of the go.
From a home perspective
So that is India customers on Trip Advisor India home locations and sights. These are the highest 10 cities throughout the months of January to June, 2025 and once more, there’s in all probability plenty of cities listed there that you’d count on to be on this record. The ones I wish to give attention to are Pune, Rishikesh and Mysore. They are trending up sharply and cities like this which are simply outdoors the highest 10, and there is a widespread hyperlink with these three and the others which are shifting up the rankings. They’re an alternative choice to the larger cities, they usually provide authenticity a slower tempo, culturally wealthy and scenic locations. So, count on to see extra of those in our lists over the approaching months and years. From an attraction’s perspective, once more, experiential fashion, sights are seeing a surge in curiosity in bookings. 75% of the experiences booked on Trip Advisor throughout this era by India, customers have been for cultural landmarks, non secular or heritage websites. Travellers are rediscovering their routes by means of significant journeys and experiences inside India.
