The new mantra in tourism after exciting tourism and medical tourism is now education tourism. In India. Tour operators are now focusing on students as the new international traveler.

Student special packages are available at concessional rates, including cheaper airfares. For a flight to Rome or London from India, the rate is a mere 9450 Indian Rupees and a trip to Dallas via New York and Helsinki costs only 19000 Indian Rupees.Tour operators are offering discounts upto September for travel to UK,Europe,USA and Canada.

As per Bhawna Agarwal, chief of air travel business of Yatra.com, many airlines are offering extra baggage allowance considering the students who are first timers carrying extra luggage. The travel portal Yatra.com is partnering with international airlines and offering extra baggage from 23 to 40 kgs.The extra baggage allowance depends on the flight and destination. The “eduJetter” package of Jet Airways offers 40-69kg baggage allowance, Matrix talk time of up to 3500 Indian Rupees and first month rental free. Shopping vouchers and other incentives are also part of this package.

The emphasis on student travelers is a recent development. This has happened because of the increased number of Indian students traveling abroad for higher studies.

The earlier trend was for Indian students going to US as a second option after IITs and IIMs.The percentage of Indian students traveling abroad was: 40% to USA, 25% to UK, 20% to Australia and the remaining to Canada, Singapore and Dubai.Inspite of recession, US continues to be the most favored destination for Indian students.However, students are looking at newer alternatives. Moscow and Singapore are emerging as hot favorites.

Till last year, Australia was a hot favorite with the number of Indian students in Melbourne alone crossing 45000.However, as per industry experts, the number of students traveling to Australia has dropped. This has been compensated by increase in the number of students traveling to Canada and UK. The drop in percentage of students going to Australia is about 20 to 25%.The drop was inspite of various incentives offered by Australian universities. The drop is attributed to recent racial attacks on Indian students.

It is estimated that about $13billion is spent by nearly 4,50,000 Indian students for higher studies in foreign universities