India Daily: Families and Couples Seize Majority of Inbound Bookings
Photo Caption: Female travelers visiting India has increased to 49 percent. KANNELIL / Foreign tourists in Amer Fort, Jaipur KANNELIL
Skift Take
India must ease travel formalities to attract more international tourists — apart from focusing on niche areas like medical, wellness, and spiritual tourism.
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:
