International | From Bangkok to Dubai

Indian tourists are conquering the world

A booming middle class, budget flights and Bollywood

Indian Tourists At the Top Burj Khalifa, Dubai.
Photograph: Alamy
|BANGKOK AND MUMBAI

INDIAN EXPRESS on a Friday evening is always bustling. Diners from all corners of India dig in to kebabs and curries. Kingfisher, an Indian lager, flows freely, and Bollywood music blares from the speakers. A similar (if slightly more abstemious) scene plays out down the road at Radha Krishna, a vegetarian eatery. One might be in any of a dozen cities in India. But this paratha party is happening in Bangkok.

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This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “The Indians are coming”

From the August 24th 2024 edition

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