'Demonetisation had little effect on Ind travellers in 2016'

Demonetisation did not seem to have a significant impact on Indian tourists in 2016, as the preference for long-haul destinations was similar to that of the short haul ones, a recent survey has revealed.
"Five of the top 10 countries for outbound travel were long-haul destinations. Indians seem to be flocking to the UK, claiming the third position as the most popular country with Indians shelling approximately Rs 12,000 per room per night," as reported in the latest Hotel Price Index (HPI) from Hotels.Com.
The report said the USA, Germany, France and Italy were the other long-haul destinations to be in top 10 list.

Spends on accommodation per night in the US remained unchanged compared to 2015 (approximately Rs 10,800 per night), it said.
In 5 of the 10 top destinations (UK, UAE, Singapore, France and Italy), travellers paid comparatively less in 2016 from 2015 - underlining that demonetisation did little to dampen wanderlust in India, it added.
HPI is an annual report on hotel prices in major destinations across the globe, tracking the movement in prices that people actually paid for their accommodation and providing insight into the reasons behind these changes.

The data is from bookings made on the hundreds of thousands of hotels on the Hotels.Com websites worldwide.

Meanwhile, the top 10 popular outbound cities for Indian travellers was dominated by Asia-Pacific cities and saw little change since 2015.
However, the top 50 and top 100 lists revealed many new destinations that were becoming increasingly popular.
The HPI data revealed evolving Indian travel habits, with a growing preference for destinations such as Kathmandu in Nepal, Budapest and Macau that made surprise entries into top 50 most popular outbound destinations, clocking in at positions 37, 38 and 50, respectively.
Moscow (Russia) saw a jump of 25 ranks to 45th position, Hanoi (Vietnam) saw a jump of 25 ranks to land at the 56th position, Lisbon (Portugal) saw a jump of 22 ranks to 82nd position.

However Goa, the tourist magnet that usually got the
third spot, was surpassed by Bengaluru in the inbound bucket and relegated to fourth spot.
"It was encouraging to observe that average daily price paid for both domestic and inbound segments for the India market saw positive movement reinforcing the fact that India is a popular destination across global traveller demographics," said Hotels.Com Director, Regional Marketing Greater China, SEA and India Jessica Chuang.
"India as a market is slightly unpredictable and that is what makes it so interesting and refreshing," Chuang added.