The growing popularity of South East Asia as a tourism destination could become one of the biggest threats for the domestic tourism industry. Outbound tourism to SE Asian countries has been growing at 10-15 per cent per annum, said Mr Hari Nair, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Holiday IQ.

“An increasingly large number of Indians seem to prefer these destinations over domestic travel due to the attractive pricing,” he said, while talking to newspersons on the sidelines of a press meet to share the Holiday IQ Summer 2011 holiday intelligence report here on Tuesday.

The cost of accommodation in most of these countries usually worked out to be lower than most of the hotels in the country, he said. “Though a customer might have to shell out more on the ticket fares, it is more than offset by the lower room rents in these countries.”

DOMESTIC TOURISM

The domestic tourism industry has been growing at 15-20 per cent on a year-on-year basis. The approximate value of the domestic tourism industry was pegged at Rs one lakh crore per annum and pilgrimage accounts for close to 40 per cent of the travel within the country, he pointed out.

This year's summer travel trends show that Kolkatans' holiday habits are becoming like Mumbaikars'. Holidays have become short. Weekend getaways are in demand. While Darjeeling and Puri continue to remain a big draw, wooing six out of 10 holidayers, Digha, Raichak, Santiniketan, Dooars, Kalimpong and Shankarpur have emerged as holiday hot spots, particularly on weekends.

While holidayers from Kolkata make up 6.81% of all domestic tourists after Mumbai (18%), Delhi (12.89%) and Bengaluru (10.06%), the city climbs to the No. 3 spot in winter as Delhi goes into slumber. "By and large, people travel within the region. That is particularly true for south (78.66%) and north (71.64%). Those from east (52.16%) and west (51.06%) step out to other regions more often," said Nair.

Out of the 48% people who went out from the east to holiday, three-fourth went to the northeast. Another stark difference from yesteryears is that couples and nuclear families are stepping out to enjoy holidays more often. Though a good 25.65% of holidayers still go in groups of more than five persons, 34.43% of holidayers are either single or couple while three to five persons make up the remaining 39.92% holidayers. Budget tourists still make up the bulk of tourists from the region with 45.49% willing to spend less than Rs 1,500 per night and 24.76% open to forking out Rs 1,500-3,000 per night.