Central Asia, Vietnam new buzzing destinations on Indian tourist map

Consider this: Passenger traffic on direct flights from India to Azerbaijan in October-March (H2) 2023-24 (FY24) jumped by a whopping 750 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), while for Georgia, it shot up by nearly 200 per cent, as per The Indian Express’s analysis of international air traffic data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The jump was around 115 per cent in the case of Uzbekistan, 108 per cent for Vietnam, and 70 per cent for Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile, India’s total outbound passenger traffic on international flights in H2 of FY24 grew 16.5 per cent y-o-y, the DGCA data shows.

In the case of countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus, all of which were part of the erstwhile Soviet Union, the jump in traffic came on a low base and was largely due to the introduction of direct flights from India by the country’s largest airline IndiGo in 2023. The airline felt that these markets were underserved and also saw an opportunity to stimulate demand further.

Before IndiGo’s flights to Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia, most of these markets were served from India by their respective state carriers, essentially making them monopoly routes.

The other option was to travel via a hub airport in a third country. While that would have served existing demand, it was unlikely to have significantly stimulated demand and grown the market. There is no publicly available official data on the number of travellers from India who flew to overseas destinations via a third country. All these countries have a sizable number of Indian students, mainly those pursuing medicine. This provides a base demand, which is now being augmented by rapidly growing leisure travel.

IndiGo’s entry, industry watchers say, has brought in competition on these routes, made fares competitive, and provided more options to passengers, which, along with other factors, have led to demand creation. IndiGo’s announcement last month that it will run daily flights to Tashkent, Almaty and Tbilisi from August, instead of the earlier frequency of three to four a week, is being seen as a testament to the strong demand the airline is seeing in these markets. IndiGo is already operating a daily service to Azerbaijan’s capital Baku.

The fact that some of these destinations offer a near-European experience — at a fraction of the cost and without the hassle of obtaining a Schengen visa — while still being off the beaten path, adds to their allure.

Indian passport holders currently do not require a visa for Kazakhstan for a stay of up to 14 days. For Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Georgia, electronic visas (e-visas) can be obtained easily in under a week for reasonable prices without going through a third-party or a travel agent.

In fact, in some cases, travelling to these countries might cost nearly as much or only moderately higher than a holiday at a popular domestic destination, thanks to costly domestic airfares, according to industry insiders. An opportunity to travel to another country by shelling out as much as one would for a holiday in Kerala, Ladakh or Goa is a hard-to-ignore value proposition for many travel bugs itching to take off.

“We are witnessing an unprecedented surge in bookings to destinations like Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan — a double-digit increase compared to pre-pandemic levels. Direct air connectivity and improved accessibility have been instrumental in the rising popularity of these short-haul destinations,” said Karthick Prabu, Head of Strategy at online travel agency Cleartrip.

According to Cleartrip, it received 10 times the bookings for Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam put together in the first six months of calendar year 2024 than in the corresponding period in the pre-Covid year of 2019. In May, another major online travel agency, MakeMyTrip, had said that Baku and Almaty were among the international destinations recording the highest growth in searches on its platform.

In the case of Vietnam, which also offers a fast, cheap and convenient e-visa for Indian passport holders, IndiGo was already operating flights from India, apart from Vietnamese carriers VietJet Air and Vietnam Airlines — both of which have been adding seat capacity on their India flights. The surge in demand for travel to Vietnam made the Tata group, too, sit up and take notice. The group’s flagship airline, Air India, launched its New Delhi-Ho Chi Minh City service just last month.

“Travellers are shifting preferences to destinations that promise accessibility, affordability, and cultural richness. India’s consumers are hence displaying a strong travel appetite for destinations like Georgia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Vietnam… Our data indicates an exponential demand of 300-600 per cent for such almost-borderless travel destinations,” said Thomas Cook (India)’s president & country head for holidays Rajeev Kale.

According to Daniel D’Souza, President & Country Head (Holidays) at SOTC Travel, frictionless travel with easy visa regimes is helping these countries garner a lot of tourists from India, given the growing tendency of impulsive travel without long-drawn planning among the growing and upwardly mobile segments of India’s population.

“Our trends indicate that travellers are now planning their trips closer to departure dates, with a reduction in the average booking window of 30-35 days for short-haul destinations, and around 90 days for long-haul trips. This challenge is an added opportunity for destinations like Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, etc, given their easy visa regimes that inspire late bookers and impulse buying,” D’Souza said.