For Valentine’s Day, consider planning a trip for you and your partner, rather than spending on an expensive gift, suggests a new research by The Postcard Hotel, India’s all-new experiential luxury hospitality brand. The Postcard conducted the research with individuals in a relationship, ahead of Valentine’s Day to authoritatively confirm what is known anecdotally, that vacations have a positive effect on relationships and romance. The survey also determines what destination is most preferred for a romantic getaway, activities that couples wish to engage in, and hotel attributes that are preferred.
Key research findings are:
An overwhelming 78% of respondents agreed that a vacation tops any other gift as the ultimate Valentine's Day gift.
An overwhelming 61% of respondents confirmed that vacations help to rekindle the romance in their relationship. However, there exists a gap between awareness and its translation into action. 53% of couples said that they had not planned a ‘lovecation’ in over a year!
A beach destination emerged as the most preferred for a romantic getaway. Nearly 69% picked a beach destination, followed by time in the mountains.
A majority of the respondents, 57% said that they picked a location of their own accord and maintained a bucket list of-of getaway destinations they would like to visit. 32% said that they were influenced by their family and friends, while the others said that social media posts of beautiful locations helped spark their imagination.
Interestingly, outdoor activities such as hikes, water sports were picked by most respondents — 67% of them — as their preferred experience while on vacation. Food experiences were the next most important experience on their list.
Majority of the users said that restrictive timings for both check in and check out and fixed meal times were the most annoying to feeling relaxed when on a vacation. 52% of all users picked curated local experiences such as food and activities followed by a plush bath and bed as their most ideal attributes in a hotel.
Research and planning for the trip emerged as the most stressful followed by packing for the trip. 53% picked the latter as the most stressful phase of planning a vacation while 23% picked the latter.