Indians stay at travel destinations for longer period: Report

Chennai, Apr 23 (UNI) Indian travellers stayed in their travel destinations for a longer period than most of their international counterparts during the fourth quarter of 2007, according to a report released by Travelvelocity India.

The report says that Indian travellers are booking for Asian and Australian destinations, as well as domestically. This is strikingly similar to their international counterparts' preference for Asian and Australian destinations.

The Q4, 2007 Travel Trends Report, based on hotel data, released by Travelocity.co.in reveals that Indians are now booking for longer durations as compared to their travel habits in Q3, as well as their international counterparts. While only five per cent of the bookings made on Travelocity.co.in were for one night (it is as high as 37 per cent in Q3), almost 83 per cent of the bookings are made for two or more nights. It includes a significant number of Indians travelling internationally.

This is in sharp contrast to travellers from countries like New Zealand, Korea and Australia, where 51 per cent, 38 per cent and 37 per cent of the travellers prefer to book their stay for one night only.

However, above 95 per cent of the stay for Indian and international travellers continue to be for a period of seven days or less.

Indian travellers appear to continue planning their holidays at extremely short notices. About 50 per cent of all Indians book their stay on the same day as their check-in. This trend is followed by Korea where only 38 per cent of the bookings are made on the same day. Many of the international travellers book their stay for more than 20 days prior to the actual stay, the report says.

Indian travellers are increasingly experimenting with international travel to several Asian and Australian destinations over the US and European destinations. Singapore has now gained more popularity over Hong Kong as the most frequented destination chart.

It is followed by Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Las Vegas. Bangalore has replaced New York on the 11 position whereas Beijing had jumped to the 16th position from the 19th position.

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