Delhi most unsafe for women travellers: Travel survey

Delhi has been pegged as the most unsafe city in the country, for the second time in a row, by women travellers, a recent survey has found.

"Delhi retained its notorious reputation as the most unsafe city amongst the top 10 Indian cities polled with 95% respondents expressing the opinion as opposed to 84% in 2013" according to a survey by travel portal TripAdvisor.

Kolkata and Jaipur were ranked second and third most unsafe cities respectively with 64% and 53% votes each.

Ahmedabad toppled Mumbai to be rated the safest city by 85% of respondents even as Maharashtra and Gujarat were voted to be the safest states with 16 and 14% votes each. Mumbai (72%) dropped to the 5th spot this year from the number 1 position in 2013.

The survey also noted that it was surprising to find that only 16% women use the women safety applications that are available.

"Whether travelling alone or in a group of women, majority of respondents preferred travelling to a city as it offered a higher sense of security, law and order. Hill stations and beaches were second and third choice respectively," the annual women traveller survey 2014 by the travel portal said.

The findings which come ahead of the International Women's day are based on information collected from 1068 women and are aimed at at understanding travel sentiment and preferences of Indian women with respect to leisure travel while travelling solo or as part of an all-women group.

47% of the respondents said they took leisure trips as part of a group of women compared to 35% who travelled solo in the last two years.

"43% of respondents were between the age of 18 and 35 years and 27% of them fell into the category between 35 to 45 years," Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor told PTI.