Corporate travel between India and various Asian nations is set to rise over the next three years as the volume of business gathers pace in the wake of free-trade agreements (FTAs) signed with countries in the region.
Business travellers to India from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and South Korea may grow by as much as 10 percentage points more than the compounded annual growth rate of 13.4% for the South-East and East Asia region between 2008 and 2010, industry experts and analysts said.
Recent tourism ministry data show there were 300,000 corporate travellers from South-East and East Asia in 2010, about 30% of those who made business trips to India.
Corporate travellers from the South-East and East Asia region may have spent in excess of $150 million on their trips to India in 2010.