The 2007 Quarter 3 Travel Report released by Travelocity India – the online travel agency with the largest range of flights online in India, reveals Singapore – India’s next door neighbour – was the most frequented hotel destination by Indian travellers booking hotels online so far in 2007. This was closely followed by Delhi in the second place and Hong Kong in the third place. The report shows Indians had a significant preference for Asian cities over the US or European popular destinations when it came to hotel bookings online.

The report ranks cities based on the number of hotel room nights booked online on Travelocity India until end-October in 2007, and compares these to Asia-Pacific regional trends.

The Q3 Travel Report revealed that travellers are using Travelocity India to book hotels all over the world including some of the world’s top metros like New York, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, London and others.

Reacting to the ‘trend report’, Himanshu Singh, Managing Director, Travelocity India said, “Places like Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok are all-time favourites for Indians and the number of hotel bookings for the same have been on the rise. Travelocity India today allows Indians to make real-time bookings online for a wide range of hotel types in India and globally, for great value. This accounts for the steadily increasing good response from customers, along with the confidence of booking with a trusted, global brand in online travel.”

“We expect the recent addition of 450 airline options to Travelocity India, including international LCCs, and our bouquet of exciting offers to further help travellers exploit with confidence the range of options at Travelocity.co.in as they begin to create their own package holidays online with dynamic packaging with us which meet their own individual schedules, budgets and interests,” he added.

The Q3 Travel Trend Report also reveals that Indians plan their travel with very short lead time and prefer making very short visits. Of the total Asia Pacific hotel bookings made on Travelocity India 56% of the Indians made the booking in the same week as the travel as compared to 31%: the regional average for Q3 07. Travelocity India expects the booking lead time to lengthen for popular destinations with high occupancy.

The top twenty destinations booked by travellers in Quarter 3 of 2007 based on hotel room bookings on Travelocity.co.in are:

Rank

Destination

Rank

Destination

1

Singapore

11

New York

2

Delhi

12

Bangalore

3

Hong Kong

13

Phuket

4

Goa

14

Sydney

5

Bangkok

15

Hyderabad

6

Mumbai

16

Beijing

7

Kuala Lumpur

17

London

8

Dubai

18

Chennai

9

Kolkata

19

Melbourne

10

Las Vegas

20

Jaipur

Looking at inbound trends from Travelocity’s global sites, Delhi ranked as the 13th most popular Asia Pacific hotel destination (by room nights) booked on Travelocity (North America) to end-October 2007.

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Note to editors:

ABOUT TRAVELOCITY AND TRAVELOCITY INDIA:

Travelocity® is a leading provider of consumer-direct travel services for the leisure and business traveller. It recently celebrated 10 years of success and has spread its know-how around the globe. Based in Dallas/Forth Worth, Texas, Travelocity now owns the leading European online travel company, lastminute.com and leading pan-Asia Pacific online travel company, ZUJI®.

Travelocity is the fifth largest travel agency in the US with significant global presence and has booked USD 10.1 billion worth of travel in 2006. Travelocity was named the "World's Leading Travel Internet Site" for the ninth consecutive year at the 2006 World Travel Awards.

Travelocity operates multiple businesses tailored to customers domestically in the United States of America and internationally, offering a large number of sites in 12 languages. It has a further 44,000+ affiliates in 40 countries.

Travelocity has created a unique niche in the online travel sector. As a champion for customers Travelocity will be able to offer Indian travellers an exceptional travel planning and shopping experience online, great value and choices, safe and secure booking and buying online.

Travelocity India was created in 2007 (www.travelocity.co.in) and offers a full suite of online travel choices and precuts, giving consumers control over their travel planning, and the convenience of online bookings and payment.

Media Contacts:
Ms. Suparna Ganguly
suparna.ganguly@cmcgindia.com
CMCG India Pvt. Ltd.
Ph- 022 2445 0991, ext 32
99303 13920
Mr. Siddhartha Singh
siddhartha.singh@travelocity.co.in