Momentum set to grow in Indian market: Brand USA

After a gap of over three years, Brand USA conducted its first roadshow in India recently. Jackie Ennis, Vice President, Global Markets, Brand USA, who led the roadshow, tells India Outbound that India is already the fourth largest source market and that the momentum is set to grow with rising flight connectivity.

- Varsha Singh

How was 2022 for Brand USA in India?

2022 was a rebound year, as is 2023. We are still in the recovery phase after the pandemic, but I think the news is all good. In 2022, India was the fourth largest source market of overseas international visitors to the USA with 1.256 million visitors, which was only 15 pc down on our numbers in 2019. So, a really great rebound. We are also happy that Indian students are the number one source of international students to the United States.

How was Q1, 2023 and what is your forecast for the year?

Again, really positive. January, February, and March are typically a slower time of year for all international visitation to the United States but we have already seen over 200,000 Indian visitors to the US.

Which segment was the fastest to recover? Which were the slowest?

I definitely think, worldwide, post-pandemic, visiting friends and relatives for the inbound market has been really instrumental in the recovery efforts because obviously there was a pent-up demand to see close friends and families that have been cut off from each other over the pandemic. So, we definitely saw that with the Indian travellers. For leisure travellers too, we are very confident that, with the airlift capabilities that we have and connectivity to the US from India, be it non-stop or be it one stop. That is really important.