States of Play: US sees an Indian tourist boom, markets take notice

New Delhi: India is rising because the fastest-growing supply of incoming vacationer arrivals to the USA, and key states and markets there are taking discover, Fred Dixon, president and CEO of Brand USA, instructed ET in an interview.Model USA, a public-private partnership established by the Journey Promotion Act, is a vacation spot advertising organisation with a mission to place the US as a premier journey vacation spot and talk journey insurance policies and procedures to worldwide audiences.

In 2024, a document 2.19 million Indians visited the USA and India ranked quantity two after the UK in complete worldwide arrivals (excluding Canada and Mexico) final yr.

“India noticed a 24.3% progress in 2024 over the prior yr, however extra importantly, it noticed a 49% progress over pre pandemic instances,” Dixon stated. “So, India is a big precedence for us.”

He stated direct continuous air capability from India to the US noticed the very best progress in comparison with 2019 amongst all nations. “Once you look throughout classes, India is main in so some ways by way of the assorted metrics. There may be a whole lot of optimism and pleasure about the place India goes. We count on this sample of progress to proceed, and the trajectory will solely go upwards,” he added.

Dixon stated many states within the US are actually seeing India rank of their high ten and even amongst their high 5 supply markets, and the nation has moved constantly within the rankings.

In 2019, India was the tenth largest marketplace for the US and in 2023, India was quantity 5.

“In 2023, Germany was our quantity two market, so India has overtaken Germany to take the quantity two spot final yr,” Dixon stated. “The USA received simply over 4 million guests from the UK final yr and a pair of.19 million from India. We received 1.99 million guests from Germany final yr, adopted by Brazil and Japan at 1.91 million and 1.8 million guests, respectively,” he added.

Dixon spoke to ET on the sidelines of Model USA’s eleventh India Gross sales and Media Mission. A delegation of 48 US tourism firms and 67 US exhibitors participated within the mission.

Liz Bittner, president and CEO of Journey South USA, a 12-state regional advertising alliance, stated Travel South USA is aiming for $500-million price of foreign exchange spends via Indian travellers this yr, up from $340 million final yr. India was the fourth largest market of origin by way of abroad spending in Boston final yr, clocking $163 million.