India has emerged as the top travel destination in Asia this summer for travellers from the United Kingdom (UK), according to analysis conducted by Travelport, a leading travel commerce platform. Globally, the United States was the top destination while India was the 2nd most popular long-haul destination for UK travellers.
As of June 14, 2019, just under 87,000 advanced bookings had been made in the UK through all global distribution systems (GDS) for return flights to India scheduled between Friday June 28, 2019 and Sunday September 8, 2019. Flight bookings in other Asian countries like Thailand and China stood at 49,137 and 29,870 respectively.
With flight bookings up by 3,402 (13 per cent) year-on-year, China was the fastest growing top ten long-haul destination for UK travellers compared to the same period the previous year.
Martin Herbert, Regional Managing Director – India and Sri Lanka, Travelport said, “It’s exciting news for Indian tourism to see the country attracting more bookings than both China and Thailand combined. This trend is fuelling increased booking volume and we expect to see it continue in the years to come.”
Sandeep Dwivedi, COO, InterGlobe Technology Quotient (ITQ) said, “India has been one of the topmost choices of international travellers owing to its rich cultural heritage, varied cultures, art & crafts and spiritual tourism. We are happy to see India as the second most booked summer destination for UK travellers. With so much to see and offer, I am sure that this number will certainly rise in the coming years.”
Global distribution systems (GDS) are vast hi-tech reservation networks that allow travel agents, travel management companies and large corporations, among others, to search and book airline seats, hotel rooms, rental cars, and other travel related items. Globally in 2018, Travelport alone processed 1 trillion transactions through its platform. The company also delivers mobile services and apps to the travel industry as well as advanced analytics products, such as Travelport Business Intelligence.
