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Top 10 destinations Indians are travelling to
Hotel.com's latest survey lists out the top ten destinations Indians have been travelling to. Have YOU been to these places yet?
A recent Hotel.com survey has shed light on travelling habits of Indians.
The survey revealed that more Indians chose to travel around their neighbourhood for work and pleasure rather than travel to Europe and America. Five out of the top ten destinations in the list are South East Asian.
According to the survey Hong Kong slipped to the fourth position while Singapore topped the chart largely because of the new luxury hotel offerings like the Marina Bay Sands, followed by Bangkok.
Take a look at where Indians have been travelling.
San Francisco
One of the three destinations in the US that Indians chose to travel to was San Francisco. Known best perhaps for its Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco also boasts of great Victorian architecture a liberal and culturally diverse community and scenic beauty.
While in San Francisco take the famous cable cars that run up and down its hills and offer a great experience for many of us who miss the good old tram days in our metros.
Also visit the Coit Tower -- the city's 'proud civic phallus' as Time.com puts it -- that is dedicated to San Francisco's fire fighters and gives great views of the city.
Pattaya
Thailand's resort town, about 150 km from Bangkok, Pattaya is more famous for its bars and adult entertainment.
It is said to have Asia's largest gay scene and is also known for cabaret shows where transsexuals and transvestites perform
Even though the thriving sex industry is a major source of income, the city it also does attract its shares of families.
Pattaya is said to cater to at least 5 million visitors annually and boasts of some interesting beaches, temples, museums and galleries and a variety of options to eat as well as things to do.
Las Vegas
Sin City and the Entertainment Capital of the World are two nicknames that describe Las Vegas the best.
With its huge casino hotels, gambling and getting sloshed are pretty much the only things you can do. Unless of course you're Danny Ocean, in which case you'd probably be trying to break into the Bellagio.
Vegas is also said to be wedding capital of the world. For less than $100 you get a licence from the wedding bureau that's open more hours than it is closed -- even on holidays -- without any blood test or waiting period and get married by anyone authorised to perform weddings in the area.
Kuala Lumpur
From being a sleepy tin-mining village, Kuala Lumpur (literally translated as 'muddy estuary' in Malay) has become one of the most popular destinations for tourists from across the world.
Today the city is home to the Petronas Towers -- the tallest twin towers in the world and also the retail and fashion hub for Malaysia.
Tourism is one of the most important sources of income and is largely driven because of the city's diversity, the endless options to stay and eat as well as the relatively low costs to experience all of them
Besides the Petronas Towers, KL's tourist destinations include the House of Parliament, the Merdeka Square, the Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur Tower and the National Palace among others.
Dubai
As a tourist destination, Dubai perhaps has the greatest advantage than any other city in this list.
Barely hours from Europe as well as India, Dubai is fast becoming a popular weekend getaway not just for the rich and famous but also the affluent middle class.
With the largest immigrant population in the world, Dubai offers water sport opportunities along its beaches, great hospitality services as well as shopping options and even relatively lesser-known entertainment options like camel racing, desert safari and dune bashing among others.
Dubai also has a snow skiing centre that is located inside the Mall of the Emirates.
New York
Often said to be the greatest city in the world, New York has had a record of 48.7 million tourists that visited it in 2010.
Among the many destinations that tourists frequent the most popular are (not necessarily in this order), the Statue of Liberty, Broadway, the Empire State Building, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park and Times Square among others.
Hong Kong
The former British colony that is now one of the two special administrative regions of China (Macau is the other), Hong Kong has become a very popular travel destination for work as well as pleasure.
Even though Hong Kong can be very crowded, the truth is that its country and marine parks offer some breathtaking landscapes.
London
It's kinda difficult not to have London in a list of Indians' favourite tourist destinations, right?
One of the great 'world cities' London attracts more than 14 million international visitors each year. According to visitlondon.com, the most-visited attractions in London included the British Museum, National Gallery, London Eye, Science Museum, Tower of London and Madame Tussauds among others.
Bangkok
One of the world's most happening tourist hotspots, Bangkok is as well known for its historical venues, temples, palaces, markets, high-rise buildings and traffic as it is for its wild nightlife.
While go-go bars are very common in Bangkok and rather popular with tourists most of them shut by 1pm, as part of the crackdowns. Some others though continue to stay open up until the wee hours of the night and even others close around sunrise.
Sex tourism isn't restricted just to heterosexual couples as Thais are said to be accepting of homosexuality.
While Bangkok does have an active gay scene, the lesbian scene isn't as happening.
Visiting Bangkok right away though may not be such a good idea considering it's been hit by floods.
Singapore
The British trading colony of the 19th century, Singapore has today gone on to become one of the busiest ports in the world and the most popular destination of choice by Indians.
With over 10 million annual visitors, Singapore has also legalised gambling and is promoting itself as a medical tourism hub.
Moreover, Singapore is also a hub for education with at least 20 per cent of students in Singaporean universities being foreigners.
Thanks partly to its new luxury properties such as Marina Bay Sands and also perhaps due to the enthusiastic Indian agents arranging the ever-popular Singapore-Bangkok-Pattaya type package tours, this city-state has topped the hotels.com list of the most popular destinations amongst Indians.