Over 85% of outbound travel still happens through travel agents: Study Despite the plethora of information available on the web, travelers still rely on travel agents to book their holidays and take care of their personal preferences and requests, says a study. According to a survey conducted by ICICI Lomabard with a sample size of 1063 respondents from five major cities, 78% of people traveling to overseas destination trust local travel agents and 11% rely on tour operators as compared to Online Travel Portals which is preferred only by 4%. The study was conducted in Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahemdabad and Chandigarh. It was revealed that the most visited ASEAN nation was Singapore (33%) which was followed by Dubai/UAE (28%) and Thailand (27%). Traveling abroad has gained traction among Indian travelers with about 82 % people making a trip once a year and 15 % 2-3 times in a year. Also, in the last five years, 22% more people have increased their number of trips to foreign locations. Tourists are going abroad in search of pleasant climate (56%) and peaceful or less crowded environ (44%). Also, more than half of the respondents were choosing overseas destinations for adventure activities while for 73% beaches and sightseeing remains the preferred activity. The reason for increase in outbound tourism was mainly because a lot of countries are now marketing themselves as weekend gateways, thanks to increase in connectivity. While more than half of the respondents admitted that short duration trips have increased, almost 36 % said that off-season tour was becoming a lucrative option. However, contrary to the conventional image of Indian travelers, almost 40 % respondents undertook unplanned travel, according to the study. The data indicates that Indian travelers are becoming open to the idea of exploration and experimentation. But since the duration of vacation does not exceed a week’s period for most outbound tourists travel agents and tourism boards need to plan the itineraries accordingly. Only 8% of the respondents stayed for more than 10 days on vacation. Increase in disposable income, deals and discounts and decreased travel fares were some of the major reasons driving the number of outbound travelers up. As a result, more than half of the respondents were shifting from domestic destinations to foreign locations for holidaying.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 04:35:13 +0000
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