The Covid pandemic and global wars were widely expected to choke international travel. But each time, it came back faster than expected, said VFS Global founder and CEO Zubin Karkaria at the 24th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
“Whatever geopolitics or whatever environmental conditions are there in the world, travel will always come back, and it will come back with a vengeance,” he added.
Crises cause only brief anxiety or logistical hurdles, during which domestic travel picks up, Karkaria said, adding that post-Covid “revenge travel” showed that the urge never waned.
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India, he said, has become the “powerhouse” of global mobility, and foreign visits have turned from aspiration to necessity. Thirty years ago, a foreign holiday was possibly an Indian’s highest social desire after buying a house. “Now, it’s not a luxury anymore. It’s not a desire anymore; it’s a necessity,” he said. “The passport penetration in India is around 8%. So, there’s a huge amount of new travellers that are coming in.”
The demand spans segments. India sends more skilled workers abroad than any other country, is a growing source of travellers visiting friends and relatives, and also the second-largest source market for international students, said Karkaria.
{{/usCountry}}The demand spans segments. India sends more skilled workers abroad than any other country, is a growing source of travellers visiting friends and relatives, and also the second-largest source market for international students, said Karkaria.
{{/usCountry}}His Dubai-headquartered firm works with 71 governments across the world and processes about 30 million visa applications a year.
The VFS Global CEO also said that Indian students travelling abroad are changing direction. Their travel to Europe is growing by almost 70% a year, he added, with Germany, Austria, Spain and France drawing students who once defaulted to the US, UK, Canada or Australia. The choice has shifted from parents to students, who now weigh a host of factors before making a decision.
“Now, the students have become very discerning. They want to see, okay, what is the course all about? What is the environment?... India is today the second largest source market for students, but it’s growing and could become number one.”
Europe is competing for them. India has signed migration and mobility agreements with several EU countries. “A lot of countries are going the extra way to support Indian students and to get the right Indian students to their countries,” Karkaria said. “Maybe they will get into the fabric of those countries in the future.”
He also said that while artificial intelligence will ease travel, it will not decide who gets a visa. “It will be a support but not the decision maker,” Karkaria said, adding that no country’s laws currently allow AI to make that call. Governments have a sovereign right over entry and “security is paramount”, he said, though “for the genuine traveller, I still see no worries”.
Addressing concerns over data safety and privacy, Karkaria said his company stores no applicant data. Biometrics are captured in booths monitored live by embassies and pushed in real time over an encrypted pipeline, and names and addresses are purged once passports are returned. Passports come back in sealed envelopes, so VFS does not know whether a visa was granted, he said.
He said that VFS Global reports touts to local authorities, including those who falsely use its name, as they prey on students and workers. “The touts build on the fear of the person who is travelling,” he said. “VFS Global uses its customer touchpoints, such as its website, social media channels, and notices at its premises, to advise applicants to apply well in advance and beware of fraudulent entities who promise early appointments and guaranteed visas for an additional fee. Remember, only embassies and consulates can decide on your visa.”
Access to the global visa system has widened too, according to him. In the late 1990s, applicants outside Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai took overnight trains and queued from the previous night; India now has more than 23 application locations and doorstep services. The process itself is getting lighter. A UK visa that once meant submitting documents and waiting for a sticker in the passport is now largely a fingerprint appointment.
Karkaria, then a travel company CEO in Mumbai, pitched outsourcing the visa process to the US embassy in 2001, arguing that officers should spend 25 minutes assessing applicants and five on paperwork, not the reverse. A six-month pilot in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Pune grew into a homegrown unicorn that now serves 71 governments through 4,000 centres in 170 countries.