India Daily: Families and Couples Seize Majority of Inbound Bookings

Before the pandemic, solo travelers accounted for roughly a third of hotel bookings by inbound travelers. But a push for social interaction and India's growing reputation as a couples getaway has since led families and couples to take a majority share of inbound bookings, according to travel tech firm RateGain Travel Technologies’ India Inbound Travel Trends report. Family hotel bookings have increased from 4 percent in the first quarter of 2019 to 10.2 percent in the first quarter of 2023. France and Spain are the top origins for families visiting India. Solo bookings have significantly declined in recent years — from 41.6 percent in the first quarter of 2019 to only 6.6 percent in the first quarter of 2023. The report studies travelers’ behavior from nine countries, including the U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Germany and France. We wonder where the inbound business travelers have gone. Here's another startling statistic from the RateGain report: the share of female travelers visiting India from developed countries has increased to 49 percent over the past five years. While the share was a little more than 33 percent of all travelers between January and March 2018, it rose by 50 percent to occupy 49 percent of the total share of international travelers between January and March 2023.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts — a luxury brand of hospitality giant Accor — has announced the signing of a new property in Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Set to open by 2025, the hotel will offer 20