Travellers in India prefer economic stays: Study

Holiday budgets in India saw a double digit spike this year but most travellers chose economic stays over big hotels, found a study that compared vacation spends

Holiday budgets in India saw a double digit spike this year but most travellers chose economic stays over big hotels, found a study that compared vacation spends.

Tavellers prefer unconventional vacations nowadays, such as trekking spots. (HT File Photo)

The savings on stay were utilised on other experiences on the itinerary, it added.

Online travel community Holiday IQ released the report on Monday that charted vacation patterns recorded from its 12 million reviewers between April and October this year over the same period in 2015.

The report said that the average travel spend per person had increased from Rs 3,303 to Rs 4976 this year.

It added that many vacationers chose budget stays such as camps, serviced apartments, jungle lodges and homestays.

“Travel is increasingly becoming experience-led instead of destination-led. More interest in off-beat destinations and adventure activities can be seen in travellers from metro cities such as Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. They explore activities such as trekking and paragliding,” said Hari Nair, founder and chief executive officer, Holiday IQ.

He added that the portal saw a growth in bookings for experiential holidays. Travellers are exploring places such as Pelling (a base camp for treks in West Sikkim), Maravanthe (a white sand beach in Karnataka known for scuba diving and snorkelling) and Bageshwar (known for its spiritual significance, located in Uttarakhand) amongst others.

Little-known, high octane, adventure sports were also catching up in India, read the report.

Some of these are microlight flying in Mysore, Heli Skiing in Auli (Uttarakhand), scuba diving in Netrani Island (Karnataka), dune bashing in Jaisalmer and hot air ballooning in Ranthambore. Families taking off on impromptu holidays scored over solo travellers, couples and groups, the report added.

The share of family travellers was 37% followed by single travellers (28%), couple travellers (18%) and group travellers (17%), respectively.

HT had reported in September 2014 that homestays in India increased from just 17 properties listed online in 2004, to 1,663 in 2014.