Indians are well ahead with year-end planning

By Neelam Mathews / December 17, 2014

On the move, Indian travellers wait to board the Mandovi Express in Goa

Online travel agent Cleartrip says 78% of Indians have planned their year-end travel 40-90 days in advance, both for domestic and international travel.

On the move, Indian travellers wait to board the Mandovi Express in Goa

Goa continued to be the year end destination of choice in the domestic segment and Dubai topped the chart for international destinations.

The survey, Cleartrip Insight on year-end travel bookings, says 50% of bookings were made through the Cleartrip app on mobile. 

Goa continued to be the year end destination of choice in the domestic segment and Dubai topped the chart for international destinations. Another trend for year-end travel showed that while solo travellers chose destinations like Bangkok, couples were more in favour of Colombo and Kathmandu. Families of three and more are heading to Singapore and Dubai.

“The volume of customers who have booked more than 40-days out has nearly doubled this year. In our view, this is clearly reflective of the impact the numerous airline flash sales over the last couple of months, have had on buying behaviour."

Again, mobile played a great contributor to advance purchases. Cleartrip has seen almost 50% of bookings for year-end travel come from smartphones, by eager travellers who gave into their travel impulse due to the cheaper fares. 

"Top destinations continue to stay predictable on both the international and domestic routes,”  Subramanya Sharma, chief marketing officer, Cleartrip said.

R