Increasing affluence of India's middle class, younger demographic present huge opportunities to boost visitation: Brand USA

The United States of America received 1.7 million Indian visitors in 2023, a 20% increase over 2019, and the targets are to hit the 2 million mark by 2027, said Staci Mellman, the chief marketing officer of Brand USA, the destination marketing organization for the US in an interview with ET.

Mellman said while visa appointment delays are a challenge for Indian visitors, measures have been undertaken to ease concerns.

“We know there are longer appointment timelines than they have historically been, but in 2023, there were 1.2 million new visas that were issued to travel to the US from India. Our visas last 10 years, which is very competitive compared to other countries,” said Mellman.


“Overall, India has opened up 250, 000 new tourist visa appointments. The embassy in Hyderabad is able to see 3,500 people a day. If the visas of Indian travelers have lapsed, the process has been made much easier for them and they don’t have to go for in person appointments if the lapsed period is about four years,” she added.

Brand USA has partnered with Tata CLiQ Luxury, and this is Tata CLiQ’s first endeavor into travel. Brand USA said the key objective of this campaign is to leverage Tata CLiQ Luxury’s client base of India’s high net worth individuals and showcase the ‘unique’ luxury travel opportunities available in the USA. When users click on the book now banner of Tata CLiQ’s Luxury page, it will direct them to the Expedia platform that is selling hotel and air tickets to the US.

Mellman said Brand USA has seen a really great response from Indian travelers coming to the US. The top destinations for Indians visiting the USA are New York, California and Florida.

“India is the number five international market for us in terms of inbound visitation to the US. What we are seeing in terms of the increasing affluence of the middle class is a huge opportunity here. A younger demographic as a whole in India is an opportunity for building lifetime repeat visitation,” said Mellman.

“Indian visitors are more willing to go beyond the main gateways and explore more parts of the US and they tend to stay a little bit longer than other international visitors with an average time of about two weeks. There is strong potential. India will hopefully surpass the number five position for us,” she added.