Indian OTA Yatra.com has released its winter survey which shows that Indian travellers are increasingly willing to spend more on their leisure trips.
The study of 10,000 Yatra users found that 30% were willing to spend more than R50,000 ($740) per person on their trip. Last year's survey found that only 25% were ready to commit to this level of spending.
This could reflect a desire for luxury travel, as the headline of the research suggests, or it could be a reflection of improving consumer confidence generally.
Yatra president Sharat Dhall thinks the former: "As opposed to early days, when Indians were a little hesitant in spending on holidays, travellers these days are more open to experiment and have increased their spends on travel and holiday experiences."
But at the same time, Yatra users are booking budget accommodation, with 60% of the sample opting for rooms which cost less that R4000 ($60) a night.
Winter breaks are increasing in popularity, but summer is still the main season for getting away. One trend Yatra has picked up on however is that winter travellers are increasingly interested in international destinations.
And also of note is the booking window, which suggests that Indians are planning ahead, with Yatra finding most people book within one to three months of departure.
Elsewhere, mobile bookings are talked up, but perhaps not with the same enthusiasm as its peers. Some 30% of the sample have booked through mobile and/or apps, a slight lag on recent figures from Cleartrip which found that 46% of transactions came via mobile or its apps.
Nonetheless, Dhall noted that Yatra was making great progress on its mobile bookings, reinforcing the oft-expressed view by MakeMyTrip's CEO for India, Rajesh Magow, that "rising smart-phone penetration is driving an inflection point in India’s online travel opportunity".
Related reading from Tnooz:Yatra uses Travelguru presence to launch budget hotels and homestays brand (Oct2015)
Yatra adopts mobile-first approach (May2015)
See also:Ctrip invests $180 million in MakeMyTrip (Jan2016)