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As we celebrate Diwali season, in this second edition of the new Traveller Insights Series, produced exclusively for DFNI by travel retail data experts Air4casts, the focus is on the affluent Indian traveller.
The series aims to provide fresh insights into the characteristics of each of the major travelling nationalities and this second edition takes a close look at the profile of the wealthy Indian traveller. All data comes from the Air4casts' Luxury Shopper platform that combines travel and luxury airport shop intelligence with bespoke quarterly consumer polling.
India's high net worth population has shown compound annual growth of around 12% over the past five years and with that growth has come an overseas travel explosion amongst Indian millionaires, especially so during the last twelve months.
Gen Z and Millennials Drive the Luxury Travel Trend
Prior to the Covid years the super wealthy traveller from India was older and male but in recent years the rapid rise of entrepreneurs in the tech sector has moved the luxury travel dial firmly towards wealthy millennial and Gen Z age travellers, both male and female. Mumbai Airport leads New Delhi for sheer numbers of these HNW individuals departing on international flights.
Mumbai and New Delhi are the biggest departure points but the fastest growing international airports in India for the travelling luxury consumer are currently Chennai and Hyderabad. There is further notable growth at both Jaipur and Pune airports for those fortunate enough to travel by private jet.
The Maldives and Thailand for Diwali
Longer haul destinations figure strongly in the preferences of these wealthy travellers, especially among those going on vacation. When asked in September about their Diwali travel plans, the 1000 strong consumer panel chose Thailand and the Maldives over Dubai for a holiday break.
The USA is always a solid favourite with wealthy Indian holidaymakers taking conventional legacy flights. Thailand and the Maldives shot up the destination league in the September poll among the super wealthy where both Don Mueang and Malé airports have private jet arrivals up three-fold since last year.
Luxury Indian Travellers and Airport Shopping
The 1000 respondents in the September poll were enthusiastic airport shoppers. Two thirds of them said that they had visited either the regular duty free shop or a luxury boutique at one of the airports on their last trip. The propensity to buy something in a luxury boutique was highest on the return leg of the trip and particularly high when transiting through the big hub airports like Doha or Dubai.
These responses tie in particularly well with the range of luxury shopping available at both hubs and the volume of premium Indian passengers using them. At the last count Doha alone had no fewer than 37 shops that could be classified in the Luxury category.
Doha's high net worth Indian passenger count has soared by 142% points since 2019 with a similar increase at Dubai's Terminal 2. In Europe it is Heathrow's Terminal 5 that leads the field for this highly sought after group of travellers.
Outside the top five Abu Dhabi's new Terminal A shopping complex is also clearly benefitting from large numbers of premium Indian passengers. For those using private jets however it is the specialist Al Bateen executive airport that welcomes the super-rich from India.
