Indians prefer to save and travel as a family: Survey

A good number of Indian travellers are now travelling to newer destinations along with their friends or family members, states a survey conducted by Travel Tours, part of FCM Travel Solutions. Interestingly, 72.9 per cent of Indian travellers still prefer to save up before planning a holiday with only a small pool of respondents willing to opt for travel loans, the survey found.

According to a statement issued by FCM Travel here on Monday, the survey was conducted individually with more than 1,200 respondents in the age group of 25-65 across eight major Indian cities who had booked international travel. As per the survey, more and more travellers are coming out of their comfort zones and travelling to newer destinations to experience their hobbies or unexplored interests.

Interestingly, the preference is still to explore new destinations as a group, be it with family members or friends (preferred choice of 45.6 per cent of travellers polled), and not as a solo traveller. This group is further broken down with 71 per cent opting to travel with their immediate family while the remaining choosing to include extended family and friends.

Beach holidays, the hottest trend last summer, has taken a backseat (34.8 per cent) while adventure holidays came in second with a preference rating of 45 per cent after family holidays. The survey also found that South East Asia continued to be a preferred destination with the Indian outbound traveller with 35.3 per cent having visited over the last six months and 30.7 per cent intending to visit over the next six months. This was followed by Middle East and South Asia.