Women travellers growing from tier II, III cities: Report

More and more women have begun travelling either in groups or solo and the trend is growing not just in metros but also tier-II and III cities, according to a report by Paytm.
The report, based on actual bookings on Paytm from April-September, said while 46 per cent of the women travelling solo or in groups belonged to tier-I cities, there has been a healthy contribution from smaller towns with 29 per cent and 25 per cent travelling from tier-II and III cities.
"It is very encouraging to note the healthy surge in the contribution of women travellers on our platform. Our latest report is a statistical evidence of increasing empowerment amongst women travellers and we believe it will encourage more and more women to venture out and quench their wanderlust," Paytm Vice President Abhishek Rajan said.

The age group of 25-34 years travelled the most, contributing more than 47 per cent to the total number of women travellers in India, followed by the 35-44 years age group (23 per cent) and 45-59 years (12 per cent), according to the report.
The preferences for top five domestic destinations remained similar to men, where Delhi topped the list followed by Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad.
While it came to international destinations, most women preferred Dubai, Kathmandu, Singapore and Bangkok thanks to the cosmopolitan nature of these cities and the relatively higher concentration of Indian population, it added.

The report also found that women are likely to spend around 10 per cent more on travel tickets compared men.

The average travel duration of women travellers are also slightly higher at six days, it said.
After establishing the brand in online travel market, Paytm is looking to ramp up its team to 250 in the coming months.
It has sold over 10 million travel tickets in FY17, launched flight ticket bookings in July 2016 and is now among the top three players for online flight ticket bookings.
The company had launched railway ticket bookings in October 2016. In January this year, Paytm's travel business crossed USD 500 million.