As the scare of Covid has started waning largely and the world at large has started easing out strict border closures, it is revealed in the APAC Travel Confidence Index by a travel portal that in the next few months, 86% of Indians polled are eager to make their travel dreams a reality. Call it by nay name including “Revenge Tourism”, but Indians are raring to go out.
11,000 travellers from 11 countries and territories across the Asia Pacific region were polled for the research. Indians have emerged as the most confident to travel , followed closely by Vietnam and China. While North Asian markets of Korea, Taiwan and Japan ranked lower on the index in terms of overall confidence.
India clearly topped the index in terms of intent to travel sustainably. 93% of respondents agreed on the importance of making sustainable travel decisions followed by Vietnam (83%) and China (77%). The optimism to travel continues to remain high with 70% of Indian travelers and 78% considering leisure travel as important while keeping their overall health and safety in mind.
Interestingly, 82% of Indian travellers said they are willing to pay more if they can make more sustainable travel choices and 77% of Indian travellers are okay with less variety in options as long as their travel decisions are sustainable.
COVID-19 has nonethesess impacted the travel choices and will continue in the near future as preference for domestic travel, despite resumption of international travel was stated by 87% of Indian travellers even when international travel restrictions are completely lifted.
As revealed in the survey the top concerns on the minds of travellers is the ‘possibility of getting stuck because of frequently changing border regulations’. It was listed as the top deterrent by 35% of Indian travellers (APAC 37%). This was followed by ‘travel cost’ and fear of having to undergo quarantine both at 33% each (APAC average of 38% and 37% respectively).
The desire to travel remains strong amongst Asia Pacific as well as Indian travellers, with ease of planning and booking travel as well as cost being the top two considerations. Both ranked consistently high across all markets, even as restrictions continue to ease around the region.
Another significant aspect revealed in the survey is that there is slower revitalisation in corporate travel in comparison to leisure travel.
The shift to remote working and virtual meetings has impacted the prospects of corporate travel also. Only 25% of Indian travellers (Average of 13% in APAC) indicated that work was a reason for them to book a trip.
“The overall insights are a promising indication of the opportunities available for the industry to adapt and collaborate now to bolster the overall confidence of travelers, so we can truly make it easier for everyone to travel and experience the world again – now and in the years to come” one of the industry opined.
