 "Tourists throwing snowballs at each other in Shimla (Photo: Reuters)")
Even as temperatures are soaring, there has been a substantial increase of 39 per cent in bookings for travel during the summer of 2017 among Indians, according to a recent report.
"There has been a huge increase in the number of people travelling this summer and about 39 per cent more Indians are opting to travel this summer season," MakeMyTrip Chief Operating Officer for Hotels and Holidays, Mohit Gupta told PTI quoting the 'Summer Travel Trends' report.
The findings of this report is based on the bookings seen on MakeMyTrip platform till February 28, 2017, for travel for the summer season (April-June 2017) and highlights the trends seen in the travel space compared to last year.
There also has been a remarkable year on year increase in bookings coming from smartphones, Gupta said.
Smartphone penetration and adoption led by the young travellers is driving the shift from offline to online in the travel industry, he added.
The transactions made from mobile app has increased by 49 per cent since last summer in 2016, the report said.
With 39 per cent more Indians travelling this summer, there has been a significant increase from April-June 2016, it added.
Further, the report said, more young Indians are travelling this summer with 12 per cent of the travellers in 18-24 age group compared to 9 per cent last year within the same age group.
As more young Indians are travelling, the mix of single travellers has also increased to 36 per cent against 32 per cent last year, it added.
Indians, Gupta said, are widely opting for travelling to the previously unexplored destinations and have been quite experimental with their travelling choices.
More travellers this summer are heading to long haul international destinations, which has registered 36 per cent growth in bookings, it said.
International travellers continue to prefer staying at 4 to 5-star hotels, it said.
However, there has also been a growth of 17 per cent in bookings seen in the mid-range hotels segment.
In domestic destination, more travellers are heading towards Delhi this summer with Mumbai-Delhi being the top domestic flight route followed by Bangalore-Delhi.
It said domestic travellers opting for budget hotels this year have increased by 24 per cent this summer.
Top domestic destinations for this summer are Goa followed by Manali (Himachal Pradesh), Ooty (Tamil Nadu) and Gangtok (Sikkim), the report said.
Indians this summer have also shown interest in travelling to previously unexplored places like Digha (West Bengal) which has seen a growth of 3.6 times and North East destinations like Gangtok, Shillong, Kalimpong, Lachung (growing by 45 per cent), it said.
In international bookings, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) was most preferred destination followed by Dubai, Thailand and Singapore.
It said London and Paris are the top destinations for long-haul trips along with Masai Mara Safari in Kenya.
