Singapore topples Hong Kong in Indians hottest destination

Mumbai, Apr 25 (UNI) Singapore has toppled Hong Kong to emerge as the top Indian tourist destination.

According to the quarter four 2007 Travel Report released by Travelocity India, India's first Global OTA offering a choice of over 450 airlines globally, Delhi and Goa beat Mumbai among the most frequented destinations and jumped up the hottest destinations charts to number two and four, respectively.

The report revealed that Indian travel booking patterns show greater confidence for longer duration of stay in international destinations but continue to be dominated by short lead times.

Hong Kong has moved down in the preference ladder and now ranks the third most frequented destination by Indians. It is followed closely by Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Las Vegas.

Bangalore has replaced New York on the 11 position whereas Beijing has jumped to 16th from 19th destination. This is significantly different from the trend demonstrated by international travellers where most of them have continued to show a marked preference for Hong Kong over Singapore and Bangkok.

International travellers have also shown a strong preference for Delhi and Mumbai which rank 11th and 16th respectively in the most preferred destination list.

Reacting to the 'trend report', Managing Director Travelocity India Himanshu Singh said, ''Places like Singapore and Hong Kong are all-time favourite international destinations for Indians. Indians are also showing a strong preference towards booking international destinations involving relatively longer travel times.'' Delhi is a close contender to Singapore among Indian's most frequented destinations and ranks at number two. The report shows that Indians had a significant preference for Asian cities over the US or European popular destinations.

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