But compared to their counterparts in other Asia Pacific

countries, the study found that Indian travellers generally travel on a budget, spending just over USD 1,000 per trip, only a quarter of the average amount spent, for example, by Australian travellers. With the majority of Indians travelling on a budget, it would create a driving demand for budget airline capacity and budget accommodation, it said. However, at the other end of the scale, the number of luxury travellers from India would also increase significantly as the number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) grew by over 20 per cent compared to 2009. In 2010, India joined the top 12 countries globally by number of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs), with an estimated 153,000 HNWIs. "India continues to experience strong economic growth over the next 20 years, we anticipate that the number of HNWIs will exceed one million by 2030, placing India third in the region after China and Japan," the study said. This creates a need for significant significant investment in infrastructure across the region in order to tap this potential adequately, it said. The study also found that Indian travellers were behaving in different ways and had become more confident in their travel decision-making, as there were higher incidence of self-management of travel facilitated by the social media. Also they were found to be using mobile devices more frequently through the travel process, driving travel service providers to interact with Indian travellers in new ways, it added.