Indians are bitten by the travel bug

The Indian traveller is maturing. Open skies, more spending power and easy accessibility, the travel bug seems to have finally got under the skin of this once known to be fussy traveller. Not only are Indians seemingly keen on visiting new places, they are now clear about what they want to do on their holiday.

Now, how many would have thought of taking a gastronomy holiday, like the one Shobha De and her husband Dilip took last month, say five years ago? They may be seasoned travellers, but you have an example there!

A report by the Pacific Asia Travel Association and Visa International states that international outbound trips by resident Indians peaked at around 8.3 million in 2006. Close to 3 million of these travelled to Asia Pacific destinations, making India the region's fourth largest source market behind China, Japan and Korea.

International tourism boards which read India as a country, which travelled only during summer vacations are now reworking their strategies. Indians today travel all round the year. In 2006, Malaysia and Sri Lanka recorded tremendous growth from India even during the traditional shoulder months of August and September.

Sri Lanka saw an increase of 13 per cent from India, Malaysia saw a growth of 24 per cent while 26 per cent more Indians travelled to Mauritius. In Singapore, there were record 6,59,000 visitors from India.

The best part, says Rajeev Nangia, associate director (operations), Trac Representations, is that Indians have started looking beyond traditional tourist destinations and are exploring lesser crowded places like Galle and Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka. In Malaysia, rich Indians are hiring villas and bungalows on small exclusive islands like Ritang and Tiomen Island.

Short haul destinations such as Macau, Kathmandu, Sri Lanka and Malaysia are being looked upon as gambling destinations by many, informs Ankush Nijhawan, managing director, Nijhawan Group. "Some people also go to Dubai, Malaysia, Kathmandu and Phuket to play golf," he says.

Christine Mukharji, director, Austrian National Tourist Office in Delhi, is very upbeat about the 50 per cent increase in Indian arrivals to Vienna in 2006.

"For the last couple of years, Innsbruck was a favourite with Indians. This growth in Vienna is a pleasant surprise," says Mukharji. Overall, Austria has seen a 29 per cent increase in overnights from India.

Mukharji also has an interesting observation to share. "The demand for Indian food, surprisingly, has decreased. Not many people now ask for a list of Indian restaurants as soon as they land," she laughs.

Cox & Kings saw a growth of 30-35 per cent in their outbound business in 2006. According to Karan Anand of Cox & Kings, Egypt and Turkey were a favourite with their clients last year. "People are also beginning to show interest in Scandinavian destinations like the Fjords in Norway," he says.

Within Europe, UK and Switzerland have also seen impressive growth from India. Indians to Switzerland were up 22 per cent in 2006.

"More than 50 per cent of these were FITs, which is a big change for us," says Ritu Sharma, country manager (India), Switzerland Tourism. The country also witnessed a trend in renting serviced apartments by the week among Indian families.

In UK, more Indians are exploring Scotland. Here too, travellers can been found renting cottages at offbeat destinations like Devon and Cornwall for 3-4 nights.

New Zealand too saw a growth of 15 per cent from India. FITs made up 70 per cent of the 20,300 Indians in 2006. "The Indian driving license is valid here, so many Indians find it very exciting to drive around the place," says Kiran Nambiar, country manager, New Zealand Tourism.True, travel has never been more fun!