New York remains Indians' first choice for vacation: Study

The city was followed by Dubai and London as the next top searched travel locations by Indians

New York remains Indians' first choice for a vacation, topping the charts of favourite tourist destinations for the second year running, a study has found.

According to the study conducted by Kayak, a travel search engine, New York, Dubai and London were the top three most searched travel locations by Indians. The trend has changed slightly for the first half of 2017 with Bangkok replacing London.

The study is based on online search queries submitted by people in the country. It also suggested that more Indian tourists, compared to the previous year, are considering locations like Amsterdam, Athens and Male to satiate their wanderlust.

"We saw a lot of interest being built for destinations like Amsterdam, Athens and Male becoming popular. These three key destinations garnered over 283 per cent, 185 per cent and 117 per cent increased volume in search queries respectively," says Abhijit Mishra, Country Manager India, Kayak.

The travel study said that most Indians begin their journeys on Friday, and travellers from Ahmedabad stayed longer on vacations on average.

"Travellers from Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Hyderabad displayed a longer average trip duration as compared to travellers from Pune and Jaipur. The average travel duration for Ahmedabad was 11 days, followed by Mumbai and Hyderabad with an average travel duration of 8 days," it said.

Travellers from Kolkata like to plan their vacations over a month in advance compared to other planners across the country.

"Travellers from Kolkata made bookings 45 days prior to the trip, which was the longest lead time to travel. Bookings from Jaipur and Hyderabad showed a relatively less number of days, with an average of 24-25 days prior to their trips," the study reported.