Indians third most frequent travellers in Asia-Pacific region

New Delhi: Indians are the third most frequent travellers in the Asia-Pacific region, with an average 7.6 flights a year, according to the Expedia Flight and Hotel Etiquette Survey 2018.

The online travel agency on Thursday released the results of the 2018 Flight and Hotel Etiquette study, an annual survey on flight and hotel behaviour of travellers across 23 countries, read a statement.

The survey was conducted online across North America, Europe, South America and Asia-Pacific using an amalgamated group of best-in-class panels. The study covered 18,229 respondents.

As many as 793 were from Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.

The survey results pointed out that Indians were at the top spot -- with 59 per cent globally -- of those who often engage in a conversation when sitting next to someone they don't know. It revealed that 70 per cent Indian travellers also dread sitting next to someone who talk too much.

Also, 32 per cent Indians find seat kicker/bumper/grabbers most annoying in a flight or at the airport, while 30 per cent indicated that audio insensitive passengers are also most annoying.

Indian travellers prefer big chain hotels (29 per cent) followed by vacation/holiday rental (22 per cent), boutique hotel (15 per cent) and short-term room rental (11 per cent) the most.

The least preferred accommodations include hostels (39 per cent) and bed and breakfasts with shared bathrooms (29 per cent).

"The findings are a testimony of the growth in traffic being experienced by the aviation industry as Indians are the third most frequent travellers in Asia-Pacific region, with average 7.6 flights per year after Thailand and Japan.

"Indians are also increasing shifting to technology as 67 per cent Indians check-in online while 18 per cent check-in on mobile. The country stands second in number of people using the boarding pass on a mobile device (29 per cent) after Thailand," said Manmeet Ahluwalia, Marketing Head of Brand Expedia.

He said the study highlights that there was a higher preference of booking the flight first followed by the hotel (37 per cent), while 36 per cent book a flight and hotel together as a package.

"Only 15 per cent Indians are driven by the hotel properties as they book a hotel first followed by the flight," he said.

Some other findings of the survey are that majority of Indians (79 per cent) prefer window seat. Also, 53 per cent of Indians recline their seats only when they are going to sleep, 48 per cent recline if it's a long flight (3 hours or more) and 23 per cent recline when the person in front of them does.