Whether it is to break away from the usual routine or explore new cultures or simply relax, Indian solo travellers are choosing international destinations over domestic ones, while planning their travel.
Kayak.co.in, the world’s leading travel search engine, has analysed travel searches and found that Bangkok, San Francisco, New York, Auckland and Toronto are the top destinations that are catching the eye of Indian solo travellers with significant year-on-year increase in search growth of 13%, 30%, 20%, 119% and 26% respectively. This trend can be prompted by a rising curiosity towards contemporary cuisines, learning new skills along with scouting for unique experiences in places outside India.
Abhijit Mishra, Director of India and Middle East, Kayak.co.in, said, “With decreasing airfares, more accessible flights and a soaring interest in adventure and discovery, solo travelling is a rising trend amongst Indians. International travel has become affordable and accessible for Indians, prompting a large number to travel abroad on their own. We have seen some drastic increase in searches when it comes to destination such as Auckland and Toronto. Whereas for group travel we have seen an increase to destination where there has been a drop-in airfare.”
Among the top searched destinations, Auckland has the highest year-on-year increase of 119% in flight searches, and with an average trip duration of 15 days. The all-time favourite Southeast Asian city of Bangkok has seen a year-on-year growth of 13% with an average trip duration of six days.
The most popular destination in North America is San Francisco, Toronto and New York with 30%, 26% and 20% year-on-year increase in search volume respectively. These cities have a higher average trip duration ranging from 16 to 22 days as compared to Southeast Asian cities (between the 3 to 6 days).