Trevolution Group, the global travel industry leader operating ASAP Tickets, Skyluxtravel, Dreamportand other major travel brands,has announced record sales for its travel operations across the Indian market during the three quarters of 2023. Reported business results indicate a solid 37% market growth compared to the same period last year highlighting India as one of the leading travel destinations for international airline passengers across the traditional leisure tourism, as well as the emerging visiting-friends-and-relatives (VFR) segment. Over 59,220 flight tickets have been sold to and from India’s main airports, resulting in almost 103 million USD in gross bookings or more than 11% of the overall company’s gross profit during the nine-month period.

India has historically been one of the most popular travel destinations for American passengers, and today the growing demand for transpacific flights is strongly exceeding pre-pandemic volumes. In the first nine months of 2023, Trevolution Group has reported a 22% increase in inbound tourism compared to the same period last year. This growth aligns with the country’s ongoing initiatives to strengthen its tourism sector. This year, from January to September, there has also been a significant 179% increase in outbound tourism from India, which indicates this market’s rapid recovery and growth. International businesses are expanding, and India is becoming a major player in today’s global economy. The past summer has been the busiest travel period up to date, and the upcoming holiday season is predicted to show the same pattern with an even higher demand marking 2023 as the year of record boom across the Indian market.

Class of Travel 

Travel from India has seen a substantial increase in sales across all major cabin classesduring the first nine months of the year. That resulted in a high 193% growth in flights booked from India in Economy and a 139% growth in Business class compared to last year’s data. Meanwhile, the demand for inbound Economy tickets has increased by 17% and by 11% in Business class. Based on recent sales results, another cabin class that keeps showing a positive tendency among Indian travellers as well as globally is Premium Economy, thus indicating a growing demand for affordable and reliable comfort. The numbers of ticket class types sold most frequently signal the gradual return of business travel, also highlighting the emerging VFR segment that is especially popular among 4.4 million Indian Americans. Additionally, 83.5% of all tickets purchased to India were round-trip tickets, while the share of one-way tickets has stayed at nearly the same level and amounted to 16.5%, compared to 16% in 2022. The predominance of outbound return tickets, however, is slightly less distinct with a 41% share in 2023 and 29% last year indicating the gradual return of leisure tourism in this region.

Booking Window and Terms

Over one-third or 36% of all global travellers flying to India in the first nine months of 2023 purchased their tickets more than 90 days prior the departure date. Last year, however, this number was relatively lower with only 31% of airline passengers booking their flights over three months in advance. This indicates that the travel industry has now finally recovered, and the travel sales show an increasing pattern of people making their travel plans further ahead. Thus, only 15% of all inbound flight tickets are purchased up to 10 days before the trip. Meanwhile, according to ticket sales from India, passengers tend to do more last-minute decisions and, therefore, only less than one-sixth of all travellers buy their tickets over three months in advance while almost 16% choose to do it up to 10 days in advance. In addition to that, the number of short-term bookings for up to 10 days from India has decreased in both 2023 and 2022, and the average length of stay abroad is now 97 days vs. 89 days in the same period last year. This shows another trend, indicating that people still want to make up for the two pandemic years and thus tend to spend more time abroad, especially when vising their friends and family. Meanwhile, for travellers coming to India, this period is three times lower with 32 days in the first nine months of the year compared to 33 days in the same timeframe last year, which is an average length of stay abroad for international leisure travel.

Destinations

According to Trevolution Group recent sales data, the majority of foreign visitors coming to India in the first nine months of 2023 originated from the United States, Canada, as well as the United Kingdom and the UAE following the last year’s pattern and choosing Mumbai and Delhi as the main arrival airports. Similarly, the top five departure cities to India remained New York, San Francisco and Chicago, followed by Los Angeles and Dallas with Air India, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines being the most popular carriers. Meanwhile, the majority of travellers starting their journey in India flew to destinations including the United States, Canada, the UAE, the United Kingdom, and within the country. Thus, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas as Washington remained the top destination cities just like in the same corresponding period of 2022 with Emirates Airlines, Air India and Turkish Airlines as the top three air carriers. That again is heavily influenced by VFR tourism, which is one of the main reasons for Indian passengers frequently flying to North America instead of other global destinations. Indian diaspora in the US is growing and these people have strong ties with India. Likewise, this trend is also directly linked to Trevolution Group launching ticketing operations in the UK at the beginning of 2023, where a large portion of the population is of Indian descent.

“India’s growing economy and expanding international business relations are fuelling a rising demand for global travel. The three quarters of 2023 have proven a strong increase in international travel between Asia and other regions. Our strategic partnerships, such as the one with Air India, are a key driver of this success; with Air India now serving three major Indian airports from San Francisco – Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore – we’re witnessing a growing demand for our services among both our loyal customer base as well as new clients. The strong revenue growth is a testament to our continued focus on supplying the demand, growing capacity, introducing innovations and securing positions in this robust market,”  

Alex Weinstein, the Founder of Dyninno Group

About Trevolution Group

Trevolution Group incorporates the travel businesses of the Dyninno Group of companies, which provides products and services in the finance, travel, and entertainment sectors. Trevolution Group has established itself as the market leader in the travel business, specializing in the visiting friends and relatives’ segment. Over 730,000 airline tickets and vacation packages were sold by Trevolution Group in 2022, which makes it the fifth-largest travel consolidator in the US.

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