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Kashmir still a favourite dream travel destination

New Delhi, Oct 3 (UNI)

The picturesque land of lakes, valleys and snow-peaked mountains of Kashmir beckons a majority of Indians as their life time dream destination for travel even as the valley is battling insurgency, according to a Thomas Cook Readers Digest Travel survey.

Despite conflicts and political unrest in Kashmir, about 26 per cent of the polled audience still prefer it as their lifetime dream domestic destination with Goa (24 per cent) and God’s own country Kerala (8 per cent) emerging second and third in the list respectively.

In addition, Switzerland has emerged as the lifetime international destination country with 23 per cent of the people opting for it. With a 12 per cent approval, the US occupied the second spot and 10 per cent travellers chose Singapore as their lifetime dream international destination.

Among other major findings from the survey, almost 99 per cent of the respondents went on vacation once every year.

Multiple holidays are increasingly becoming popular as 32 per cent went on holiday trips at least twice a year while 22 per cent went on vacation more than 3-5 times a year. 53 per cent of these people had kids.

The Thomas Cook Travel Destination survey was conducted across eight cities in the country including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Secunderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune.

The survey undertaken for the first time in the country has evoked interesting responses from 1500 person-strong sample, selected to represent a wide stratum of the population.

’’ Leisure travel both at the domestic level as well as the international level is witnessing a sharp rise over the years with impressive increase in income levels’’ Thomas Cook India Managing Director Madhavan Menon said.

The Thomas Cook Travel survey 2006 highlights the trends among top destinations within India and internationally and understands the behaviour and travel preference of holiday travellers. This would also enable the service providers and the authorities to usher the required changes, Mr Menon added.

The survey also found nearly 66.5 per cent people have never visited an international destination while 21 per cent travellers have visited an international destination once every 2 years and 8 per cent have visited an international destination once every year.

Nearly 74 per cent of all travelers preferred to go on a vacation with family, while 46 per cent prefer going with friends. Of all international travelers, 70 per cent ranked sight seeing as the most important reason for travel while shopping was most important for 61 per cent, survey revealed.

The preferred months for vacation was between October to December for over 51 per cent while only 39 per cent said they preferred to travel in summer.

Among the surveys key findings, 6 per cent of travellers have visited Singapore in the last one-year while 5 per cent and 4 per cent travelers have visited London and Malaysia respectively in the last one year. Among domestic destinations 25, 11 and 10 per cent of traveler have visited Goa, Delhi and Bangalore respectively, in the last 12 months.

Among International airlines, British Airways, Air India and Singapore Airlines have been selected as the favourite international airline while the Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Air Sahara have emerged as the favourite domestic carriers.

In the list of top International Hotels, The Taj Group (20 per cent), the Hyatt (9 per cent) and Oberoi (6 per cent) have been rated as the top hotel chains in India.