NEW DELHI, Mar 17:Undeterred by high inflationary pressure, Indians are likely to spend more on vacation this year with most of them preferring either a holiday with family or adventure travel, a study has claimed.
Despite high inflationary pressure and an overall economic outlook, which doesn’t predict much increase in salaries, about 77 per cent Indians said they were planning to increase their travel spend this year, a biannual study conducted by independent research firm StrategyOne, done on behalf of TripAdvisor, has found.
“Indians favoured was a holiday with family or kids the most, with 22 per cent respondents choosing it as their preferred type of trip. An adventure trip was the second most preferred type of trip chosen by 16 per cent of the Indians, much higher than the world average of 11 per cent. India was placed with Germany, France and Egypt as countries that ranked highest for ‘Adventure’ trip,” it said.
Although beach holidays were preferred by majority across various countries, it was the third choice for Indians followed by cultural trips. Winter sports holidays were the least preferred holidays across the globe, including India,” the TripBarometer study, which was conducted world wide, said.
Majority of Indians, about 61 per cent, travelled on leisure for their last trip followed next by ‘Visiting Family and Friends’ at 21 per cent, much higher than the global or Asia average of 18 per cent.
Also, India ranked highest at 16 per cent among all countries (along with Egypt and South Africa) for those who last travelled for business.
The study highlighted that a new trend of travelling solo has emerged among Indians, which is quite common among the travellers of other countries.
While the global percentage of solo travellers stood at 14 per cent, Indians were not far behind at 12 per cent. Also when majority travellers, across the world, said they travelled with their spouse or partner on their last trip, Indians travelled “with children” (22 per cent) and “other family members” (26 per cent), which was much higher than the global trend of 18 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.
Breaking away from conventional ways, Indians were found to be an organised travellers as majority (92 per cent) of them wanted to have all the basics taken care of like booking flights, arranging transit and accommodation, when planning and booking online. The word of mouth emerged as a powerful source of information, as they seemed to be relying heavily on the opinion of other travellers, the study said.
Apart from this, Indians turned out to be tech addicted during their vacation, as 58 per cent accessed Internet via mobile, 50 per cent uploaded their photos to social networking sites and 44 per cent updated their status on social network.
“With such an optimistic outlook for their travel plans this year, travel seems to have become an integral part of the consumption basket for Indians – a change even a slow economic scenario seems unable to derail, according to the results of our survey,” said Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor India.
In addition to travelling more heavily, we also seem to be turning into intrepid travellers as India features among countries that ranked ‘adventure’ highest as preferred type of trip, he added.
The TripBarometer by TripAdvisor was based upon an online survey conducted in December 2012 – January 2013. A total of 35,042 people participated in the online survey from 26 countries spanning seven regions. (PTI)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel