The Quarter 4, 2007 Travel Report released by Travelocity India – India’s first Global OTA offering an unprecedented choice of over 450 airlines globally, reveals that Indians preferred Singapore over some of the other world favourites including Hong Kong. Delhi and Goa beat Mumbai among the most frequented destinations and jumped up the hottest destinations charts to number two and four, respectively. The report reveals that Indian travel booking patterns show greater confidence for longer duration of stay in international destinations but continue to be dominated by short lead times.

Hong Kong has moved down in the preference ladder and now ranks the third most frequented destination by Indians. It is followed closely by Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Las Vegas. Bangalore has replaced New York on the 11 position whereas Beijing has jumped to 16th from 19th destination. This is significantly different from the trend demonstrated by international travellers where most international travellers have continued to show a marked preference for Hong Kong over Singapore and Bangkok. International travellers have also shown a strong preference for Delhi and Mumbai which rank 11th and 16th respectively in the most preferred destination list.

Reacting to the ‘trend report’, Himanshu Singh, Managing Director, Travelocity India said, “Places like Singapore and Hong Kong are all-time favourite international destinations for Indians. Indians are also showing a strong preference towards booking international destinations involving relatively longer travel times.”

Delhi is a close contender to Singapore among Indian’s most frequented destinations and ranks at number two. The report shows that 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-December in 2007. This travel trend is very similar to that demonstrated by international travellers who have also shown a strong preference for Asian and Australian cities over the conventional Europe and US tours.

While short durations of stay continue to persist, one night hotel stays have dropped dramatically from 37% in Q3 to 5% in Q4, reflecting greater confidence for longer international bookings on Travelocity.co.in. This reaction is a sharp contrast to the booking patterns demonstrated by travellers from New Zealand, Korea and Australia, where as much as 51%, 38% and 37% of the travellers preferred staying for one night only. 96% of Indian Travellers have stayed for the duration of a week or less in a given destination.

However, short lead times still continue to dominate hotel booking lead times in India. Of the total Asia Pacific hotel bookings made on Travelocity India, 58% of the Indians made the booking in the same week as the travel as compared to 56% during Q3. Travelocity India expects the booking lead time to lengthen for popular destinations with high occupancy, especially with the advent of the summer booking season.

The Q4 Travel Report revealed that travellers are using Travelocity India to book hotels globally as well as domestically. These include some of the world’s top metros like New York, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, London and others.

Himanshu elaborates, “The number of hotel bookings has seen a continuous and robust growth during Q4. Travelocity India offers the largest range of airline options and allows Indians to make real-time bookings online for a wide range of hotel types in India and globally. The trend report reveals that Indians are opting to travel not just domestically but also internationally and with greater confidence. All these travel options are available on Travelocity.co.in for great value, good travel experience and a hassle-free, reliable booking experience. As India’s first global OTA, Travelocity.co.in continues to receive a great response from customers.”

The top twenty destinations booked by travellers in Quarter 4 of 2007 based on hotel room bookings on Travelocity.co.in are:

Rank

Destination

Rank

Destination

1

Singapore

11

Bangalore

2

Delhi

12

New York

3

Hong Kong

13

Phuket

4

Goa

14

Sydney

5

Bangkok

15

Hyderabad

6

Mumbai

16

London

7

Kuala Lumpur

17

Chennai

8

Kolkata

18

Jaipur

9

Dubai

19

Beijing

10

Las Vegas

20

Cochin

Looking at inbound trends from Travelocity’s global sites, Delhi ranked as the 11th most popular Asia Pacific hotel destination (by room nights) booked on Travelocity (North America) to end-December 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.

About ZUJI

In 2005, 2006 and again in 2007, ZUJI® was recognised as Asia Pacific’s ‘Best Online Travel Agent’, as awarded by TTG travel magazines in Asia Pacific. ZUJI was also awarded as the ‘Best Online Travel Agency’ in 2007 by the TravelWeekly (Asia) Industry Awards. In March 2008, Condé Nast Traveler acknowledged ZUJI.com as the ‘winner’ when it comes to booking flights in Asia.

ZUJI gives travellers in Asia Pacific online access to real-time travel bookings for thousands of hotels and hundreds of airlines, as well as bringing cruises, car hire, attraction bookings, package tours and other inspirational travel offers, products and tools online.

ZUJI has teams and/or travel websites in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Korea (‘Nextour’), New Zealand (‘Travelocity New Zealand’), and India (‘Travelocity India’), as well as many ‘Travel Partner Network’ sites throughout Asia Pacific.

ZUJI is owned by Travelocity®, an international leader in online travel. Travelocity books more than $10 billion per year in travel with over $1 billion in revenue. Travelocity is owned by Sabre Holdings Corporation, a world leader in travel commerce.

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