Young travellers driving Indian travel landscape: Study

Travellers in the age group of 18-35 years are dominating the Indian travel scene with almost 66 per cent of the overall trips being undertaken by this young tech-savvy generation, a study has said.
"Young Indians are the driving force behind the changing travel landscape in the country. About 66 per cent of the total trips were made by travellers in the age group 18-35 years," according to online travel company MakeMyTrip's 'India Travel Report 2016'.
The findings are based on the bookings seen on MakeMyTrip platform during January-June 2016, compared to the same period last year.
It revealed that smartphone penetration and adoption is driving shift from offline to online in the travel industry.

Mobile is the most preferred booking platform, as 74 per cent of the bookings were made via app by travellers in the age group 18-35 years.
Compared to this, travellers' mix preferring desktop as the medium comprises of more travellers in the age bracket of over 35 years, accounting for 40 per cent of the total bookings made via the desktop, the study added.

"At a high level, mobile as a booking medium and hotels as a category has significantly evolved compared to last year. Further, travellers are increasingly becoming younger.
"Just like financial or career ambition, people now have travel ambition especially the younger generation. This has had a direct effect on the travel landscape of the country, which is now being driven by young Indians," MakeMyTrip Co-Founder and CEO-India Rajesh Magow said.

The other top trends the MakeMyTrip study observed this year include higher spending on luxury travel experience within India and abroad by travellers, rise in solo-woman travel amongst others.
The average spends by travellers have seen a rise with Rs 50,000 per person for short-haul and Rs 1 lakh per person and above for long haul destinations, it said.
With higher disposable income, people have started spending more time on their holidays (12-14 nights) by clubbing multiple destinations in their itinerary.
The average holiday frequency has also gone up due to extended weekends and average vacation time period is up by 10 per cent.

About 63 per cent of the young travellers have taken more than four trips in the first half of 2016, versus 54 per cent in the first half of 2015, it said.
In terms of international travel, it said, young Indians prefers short haul destinations. About 65 per cent of the trips made in short haul destinations were made by travellers in the 18-35 years age bracket, it said.
The study revealed that while international hotels witnessed planned bookings, domestic hotels saw a rise in last minute bookings with 50 per cent of bookings having an advance purchase window of only two weeks.