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India’s surging middle class is projected to spend as much as $144 billion a year on international travel by 2030. And hotels, airlines and cities are spending millions to entice them.
Travel brands have begun heavily courting Indian tourists, often by tapping celebrities as influencers. Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan promotes Dubai and Katrina Kaif professes her loyalty to Accor. Actor Ranveer Singh appears in ads for Abu Dhabi, while his wife, Deepika Padukone, is the global brand ambassador of Qatar Airways. Meanwhile, Neeraj Chopra, the reigning Olympic gold medalist and world champion in javelin, has been enlisted to promote Switzerland’s spectacular alpine landscapes.
With more than 1.4 billion people, India now has the world’s largest population and the fifth-largest economy. Outbound travel from India is growing much faster than from any other country, which has led to a flurry of predictions that have travel brands salivating.
