ETW STAFF – Mumbai
Singapore continues to be the first most visited destination, but has dipped in preference for leisure and business travellers from India. Only 16 percent leisure travellers, and 11 percent business travellers have visited Singapore in the last year, as against the 23 per cent for leisure and 15 percent for business in 2010. These are the latest findings of the India Outbound Travel Monitor 2012, by Nielsen, a leading provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy.
The Nielsen India Outbound Travel Monitor is a biennial study carried out across leisure and business travelers in 10 cities in India, with over 2500 respondents across Tier I and Tier II cities. Nepal (11 per cent ), the USA (6 per cent), Bangladesh (6 per cent) and United Kingdom (5 per cent) are the gainers as compared to 2010, basis those countries visited in the last year. Countries that show a rise in business travel are the US (8 per cent), Malaysia (8 per cent) Australia (5 per cent) and UK (5 per cent ).
“Indians are looking to travel and explore beyond their comfort zones, increasingly guided by a healthy sense of adventure and discovery, combined with a healthy spending power. This is attributed to the freely available and accessible information on different destinations, and details on cuisine, tourist spots”, said Dinesh Kapoor, ED, Nielsen India. “This is also balanced with the fact that the Indian traveller is still value conscious, and careful when it comes to food habits – and these particular attributes are incorporated in customizing experiences for them.”
