Expedia.com, has released the results of the 2013 Flip Flop Report, an analysis of behavior and preferences among beachgoers in Asia, North America, South America, Europe and Australia. The survey highlights the maturation of Indian travelers, as they prefer to do their own research, consult reviews, blogs and social media while planning their vacation. This survey was conducted online from April 19 to May 15 across Asia Pacific, Europe, North America and South America by Harris Interactive among 8,606 respondents in 21 countries.

"The survey shows a clear evolution of Indian travelers with respect to planning and booking behaviour. Their reliance on third party reviews when choosing a holiday destination has increased. Indians globally ranked 1st in consulting traveler reviews (62%), travel guidebooks (58%), travel magazines/TV shows (54%) and 2nd in consulting social media (42%), news stories (42%) and travel blogs (47%). In fact, nearly nine in ten (89%) of vacationers who traveled or plan to travel internationally felt that it was important to learn the local culture and history of their international beach vacation destinations. Keeping this evolution in mind, we launched verified customer reviews last year, to enable the Indian traveler make an informed decision," said Vikram Malhi, General Manager, South and Southeast Asia, Expedia.

"We saw that while online travel booking is picking up at an exponential rate, 27% of the respondents used Smartphone/tablet platforms to make their bookings. Many of them even lapped up last minute package flight/hotel travel deals, at about 47% - that was 4th highest globally." Malhi added.

Appended are the detailed findings of the survey:

Preference for Vacation

-- The preferred season for Indian beach vacationers is summer at 55%, while they rank 3rdglobally in taking vacations during winters at 30%, preceded by Mexico at 41% and Canada at 33%

-- 71% of Indians took a beach vacation in the past year, ranking 3rd behind, Malaysians (77%) and Brazilians (73%)

-- The highest likelihood for beach vacations over the next year comes from Indians at 95%, closely followed by South Koreans at 92%. Travelers from Denmark are least likely to take a beach vacation (44%)

-- Beach vacation is most important (critically/very important) for Brazilians (77%) and Indians (61%)

-- Indians have the highest percentage of people globally who would prefer to take a ski/mountain holiday (19%) or an adventure sports vacation (9%, tied with Ireland); while almost the lowest globally in historic/cultural sightseeing at 18%

Vacation Planning: Where are we headed?

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