The ultimate insight on the Indian luxury traveller
Authored by: Arun Ashok, Country Manager - Luxury Escapes India
Luxury Escapes India recently concluded its annual online luxury traveller survey. With participation from more than 2,000 travellers across the country, one would be hard placed to find a better barometer to gauge the mood of this segment in India. As one of the only businesses in India that caters exclusively to the online luxury traveller, Luxury Escapes is in the unique position to conduct and draw inferences from the most comprehensive survey conducted in this space.
The audience comprised almost equal numbers in Mumbai and NCR, and about half of that in Bengaluru. These three cities alone contribute 72% of the OLT base in the country with other notable regions being Gujarat (9.6%) and Hyderabad (4.8%). This is testament to the sway the big three cities hold for the online travel segment and the luxury micro-market within it.
The gender ratio stays skewed towards males (73%) with Gujarat presenting the most skewed audience (81%) and Mumbai, the least (69%). An interesting trend appears when one considers younger and older populations – 47% of the female audience were under 35 vs. 37% of the male audience under 35, thus showing us that the male skew will continue to decrease as the younger generations grow older.
If one were to scan across age groups, the 26-45-year-old cohort would reveal itself to be dominant, representing almost 73% of the audience. While a negligible percentage was under 25 and over 66, the balance sits between 46-65 years of age. Bangalore has the highest concentration of the 26-45 cohort. This age group is also the most likely to value a great hotel experience over any other aspect of travel, unlike every other age group.
Close to 50% of the OLT audience travel with a budget between INR 1-5 Lac per couple, with the balance distributed above and below that bracket. Affluence tends to be skewed towards the city of Chennai with more than 20% of respondents from Chennai claiming a travel budget over INR 3 Lac, the highest amongst all cities. INR 1-3 Lac seems to be the sweet spot across the dominant metropolitans of Mumbai, NCR and Bangalore.
When asked their favourite Luxury Escapes deal inclusions, more than 68% selected all-inclusive meals, while airport transfers was a close second. Luxury Escapes can also reveal that Mumbaikars value spa massages and airport transfers higher than most other audiences and NCR residents value all-inclusive meals less than most others surveyed. While the Bengaluru audience valued cultural experiences far more than others, they valued gourmet food less than most others.
When asked what the #1 factor was to prevent OLTs from travelling, prohibitive costs were obviously the most cited reason, followed by lack of annual leave and trip planning challenges. It’s also heartening to note that 16% of the total audience claimed there was absolutely nothing preventing them from going on their holiday of a lifetime. Chennai and Jaipur topped the list of cities that had the most responders stating the above. Another interesting conclusion was that children at home seemed to be a bigger inhibitor to travel for men than women.
Factors influencing travel is an interesting area with friends and families being the largest influencer, followed by bloggers/influencers and social media in third place. Bloggers seem to have the biggest impact in Bangalore whereas friends and family has the biggest impact in Kolkata and Chennai. Online ads seem to be most effective on budget travellers whereas friends and family are most effective in targeting luxury travellers. This lever also tends to be the most effective with older travellers, whereas social media tends to be most effective with younger travellers.
The picture that this report paints is of a vibrant and enthusiastic Indian online luxury traveller, keen to travel the globe and constantly discovering newer ways to do so. In an environment of uncertainty, the passion for travel stays strong, commanding a larger share of the wallet and influenced by a multitude of factors. Across age groups, cities, genders and affluence levels, the Indian OLT market is one that Luxury Escapes has immense faith in and continues to delight, one deal at a time.
Interested in learning more on how you can tap into the Indian luxury traveller? Luxury Escapes has a team of marketing experts to market your hotel to this audience.
