Indian food continues to grow global appeal

Indian cuisine ranks fifth in the most sought after cuisine by tourists across the world

A recently conducted gastronomy survey by Hotels.com, (www.hotels.com), the global hotel experts, has unearthed some very interesting insights into the dining habits of various nationalities across the globe. It states that Indian cuisine is loved by tourists across the world and is fifth in the list while Italian cuisine remains the world’s favourite food.

Aussies, Brits, Dutch, Kiwis all love Indian fare as do our own countrymen. However, it is no surprise to note that Indians also enjoy Chinese food the most after their Ghar-ka-khana. The numerous street side Chinese restaurants in Mumbai and other cities of the country stand testament to that. The French though seem to like Indian food over Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and even the Greek cuisine. Their affinity to Indian food follows their fondness towards French & Italian cuisines. Our Asian counterparts, Koreans and Japanese, surprisingly seem to prefer Indian food the least.

Italian cuisine, renowned for its pizza and pasta, ranked as the most popular fare among the survey respondents worldwide, followed by French, Thai, Chinese and Indian food. Of the major Asian cuisines i.e. Chinese, Thai and Indian; Thai cuisine finds the most fans among international travelers. Apart from Indians who enjoy ‘Dal makhni & rotis, Aussies travellers rated Indian food among the tastiest cuisines. However, although ‘Chicken tikka masala’ (originally an Indian dish) is very popular among British,   but they seem to like Italian more than Indian food.

The survey, which polled more than 4,000 travellers worldwide, also revealed some interesting facts about Indians who rank fifth when it comes to deciding a place to travel based on its local culinary delight only behind Korea (41.67%), France (33.43%), Japan (30.42%) and Australia (29.03%). But when it comes to trying out the local cuisine, Indians tend to be reserved and trail behind people from 18 nationalities polled in this survey. The Koreans however, seem to give gastronomy the most importance while it comes to choosing the place of travel (41.67%) as well as trying out the local cuisine (98.19%)

Travellers from Australia and New Zealand love trying out local cuisines while visiting various destinations in the world. Japanese too seem to be quite gastronomically driven since almost half the respondents choose a destination basis its local food and drinks.

Indian food being their favorite, our fellow travelers, love carrying snacks especially while on trips whereas Brits can’t seem to travel without tea. Vegemite has a similar place when Aussies travel and, among the French respondents, coffee and chocolate were seen as essential travel ‘food accessories’. Parathas and spicy food also ranked as the food Indians miss most when travelling (43 per cent), followed by Masala Chai (26 per cent).

About the survey:
The gastronomy survey was initiated by Hotels.com. More than 4,000 travellers from Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and UK participated in Hotels.com survey. The survey was carried out from October 25 to November 8, 2010 by Hotels.com.

About Hotels.com
As part of the Expedia group which operates in all major markets, Hotels.com, the global hotel specialist, offers more than 130,000 quality hotels, B&Bs and serviced apartments worldwide. If the customer can find the same deal for less on a prepaid hotel, Hotels.com will match it. Hotels.com benefits from one of the world's largest hotel contracting teams in the industry, negotiating the best rates for its customers, plus there are 1.8 million reviews from users who have actually stayed in the hotels to ensure customers make an informed choice when booking. The company currently operates over 70 Hotels.com sites around the world including 13 sites in 8 languages across Asia Pacific alone. Travellers can book online or by contacting one of the multilingual call centres on 1800 102 1122.

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