MUMBAI, 10 June 2019: More Indian travellers are taking a shine to adventure travel but they still prefer to travel as families or with close friends.
These are just some of the trends and insights Travel Tours, the leisure travel brand of FCM Travel Solutions released in its first Outbound Travel Survey for 2019.
The survey’s release was timed to coincide with the start of the busy summer travel season, July and August.
The survey was conducted with more than 1200 respondents within the age group of 25 to 65 years across eight key cities in India who had booked international travel recently on the platform.
Commenting on the report, FCM Travel Solutions managing director Rakshit Desai said: “The Travel Tours Leisure Travel Survey 2019 gives us insights into the travel preferences of the discerning Indian traveller. With the rise in disposable incomes, ease of access to new and upcoming holiday destinations and convenience in planning and booking holidays online, the number of Indians travelling abroad has multiplied exponentially.”
According to the survey, more and more travellers are coming out of their comfort zones and travelling to newer destinations to experience their hobbies or unexplored interests.
However, the preference is still to explore these new destinations as friends and family groups (the preferred choice of 45.6% of travellers polled) and not as a solo traveller.
This group is further broken down with 71% opting to travel with their immediate family while the remaining choosing to include extended family and friends.
A top choice last year, beach holidays have this time round taken a backseat (34.8%) while adventure holidays came in second with a preference rating of 45%.
Family vacations remain a priority for the Indian traveller with nearly 47% of the target group opting to travel in family groups for outbound travels making it the top placed travel option ahead of adventure travel.
The survey also found that Southeast Asia continued to be a preferred destination with the Indian Outbound Traveller with 35.3% having visited over the last six months and 30.7% intending to visit over the next six months. This was followed by the Middle East and South Asia.
Interestingly, 72.9% of Indian travellers still prefer to save up before planning a holiday with only a small pool of respondents willing to take out travel loans.
