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High air fares, hotel room costs as well as fuel prices could hit holiday plans of Indian travellers, a survey by holiday planning site TripAdvisor says.
“With consistent high inflation burning a hole in the pockets of consumers, vacation budgets tend to be under pressure. This is evident as 66 per cent respondents said they would be looking at changing their holiday plans due to budgetary constraints,” the Mid Year Traveller Sentiment Barometer by TripAdvisor said. The survey took responses from 1,000 of its members.
In the period January-July, nearly half the respondents said that rupee fluctuation impacted their international holiday plans, with nearly 9 per cent cancelling their foreign holidays and 43 per cent changing their destination. Nearly 84 per cent travellers stuck to domestic holiday destinations.
A majority of the respondents said that high air fares, hotel room costs and fuel prices may eat into their holiday spends compared with last year.
Despite the odds, Indians expect to continue travelling, with nearly 79 per cent respondents saying they were looking to going on more holidays during the August-December period.
Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor India, said, “Budgetary concerns are having a definite impact on overall travel plans this year, particularly international travel”, adding that “the appetite for travel displays resilience, with travellers instead of abandoning travel plans, simply opting for domestic destinations, shorter trips or destinations such as South East Asia where the rupee can deliver more.”
Nearly 45 per cent respondents said they would look at domestic holidays due to budgetary constraints, while 62 per cent said they planned to take two-four holidays by the end of 2012, and nearly 29 per cent planning five or more holidays.
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