Despite attacks, Europe remains popular holiday destination for Indians this summer

Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Goa emerge as most popular tourist attractions

Indians planning to holiday abroad this summer continue to look at Europe as a destination in spite of the recent terror incidents, travel portals say. Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore along with the UAE are also popular attractions.

Within India, travellers are showing interest in cooler destinations such as Srinagar and Gangtok while Goa and Leh, too, continue to attract visitors.

Ranjeet Oak, chief business officer (holidays), MakeMyTrip, said international travel is growing at a faster pace compared to the domestic segment.

“Europe is a favourite with Indians for the second year now, showing significant growth. As far as international holidays are concerned, we see increased number of nights and higher transaction values. More and more Indians are planning and investing on holidays,” he said.

Within Europe, travellers are looking at less explored destinations beyond places in the UK and France. Europe has become attractive as local costs have come down there due to a variety of reasons.

“Holiday costs in Europe are down 10-20 per cent compared to last year. Within Europe, people now go beyond the UK, France and Switzerland to explore Greece and Turkey. In the Asian region, Singapore and Thailand remain favourite destinations,” said Abraham Alapatt, chief innovation officer and head (marketing and service quality), Thomas Cook India.

An emerging trend this holiday season is advance and planned bookings by travellers to benefit from deals on air fares and hotels. Also, the number of people booking holidays on mobile phones has gone up sharply. Amit Taneja, chief revenue officer at Cleartrip, said the portal saw almost 45 per cent of bookings for summer holidays from mobile phones, as opposed to 20 per cent last year. “While Goa continues to rule the roost amongst top domestic getaways, Bangkok has emerged as the top international getaway for Indians this summer,” Taneja said.

Summer is a key business season for travel portals, airlines and hotels. The aggressive marketing and promotional offers on holiday packages and hotel tariffs combined with attractive airfares (due to lower aviation turbine fuel prices) is helping the bookings this year. “Major destinations have remained unchanged. Goa, Kerala and Andaman are popular in domestic travel. Countries in Southeast Asia and Europe are popular overseas destinations,” said Sharat Dhall, president at Yatra.