Amidst this ambiguity and uncertainty that exists today because of COVID-19, BOTT decided to take an innovative approach to gauze the sentiments of people with respect to travel and what will be the new “normal” of travel when the lock down gets over and operations resume. The core objective behind BOTT Travel Sentiment Tracker is to showcase a genuine picture of what is the ground reality in Indian Travel & Tourism sector.
Key Findings
- The Indian Travel and Tourism sector may be down but not out as 63% Indians are willing to travel after COVID-19 pandemic has flattened out.
- About 66% Indians are ready to resume travel in the next 3 to 6 months after the national lockdown is over.
- As many as 30% Indians are missing Travel during this lockdown.
- About 30% Indians would undertake Business Travel and 22% and 18% shall go on Leisure Travel and Family Vacations respectively.
- Around 41% Indians are ready to travel both within their states as well as outside their states. While 29% will only travel within their state.
- A huge 72% Indians are ready to travel within India while 14% are ready to travel outside India after the restrictions are lifted.
- About 22% Indians would like to go on road-trips and excursions; 19% to resorts and remote destinations and 16% to Hills and Adventure locations
- A good chunk of 45% Indians would like to go for day trips followed by 32% who would undertake trips for duration of 1-3 nights.
- About 82% Indians would go for Hotels and Resorts which are COVID-19 safe or prepared offering amenities such as Masks & Sanitizer kits.
- Around 33% Indians would prefer self drive; 24% will opt for taxis followed by 22% for aeroplanes and 18% for trains as their mode of transportation in the next one year.
- As high as 90% Indians would be comfortable taking an air or train journey if they are COVID-safe.
- About 73% Indians would opt for Airlines, which are COVID prepared followed by 23% Indians who would go for Airlines that are offering good deals.
Why BOTT Travel Sentiment Tracker?
The Covid-19 has cast a gloomy spell on the world that has stretched beyond geographical boundaries. The first half of 2020 would be remembered as one unique period where the spring colours were not enjoyed, the school exams and results per decided on partial performance, blanket ban on travel visas, the airplanes remained grounded and birds had the sky to themselves and an era where mankind came to a standstill – locked and confined in home with only talks of future to keep them motivated.
One of the worst hit industries across the world has been travel and tourism. It’s also one of the largest industries in the world, with $5.7 trillion in revenue. It is responsible for an estimated 319 million jobs, or roughly one in 10 people working on the planet. Similarly, the Indian travel industry has already taken a huge hit due to travel restrictions and canceled trips for both business and pleasure with India being under national lock down since March 24, 2020.
Amidst this ambiguity and uncertainty, BOTT decided to take an innovative approach to gauze the sentiments of people with respect to travel and tourism, initiating the first-ever, pan-India, Travel Sentiment Tracker in the country. The core objective behind BOTT Travel Sentiment Index is to showcase a genuine picture of what is the ground reality in Indian Travel & Tourism sector.
Process
In our first BOTT Travel Sentiment Tracker, we had approached about 8000+ verified BOTT readers and subscribers, in the age-group of 20 yrs – 60 yrs with keen interest in travel & tourism but are not associated with travel and tourism companies. This was done purposely to avoid any bias in the final results as a decent chunk of our readers are from travel and trade sectors. There were other markers as well like the profile, income levels, location, occupation segment, and age groups. We conducted the survey for over a period of 3-weeks, starting April 7 to 27, 2020. After cleaning the data using standard data analytics tools, we mined responses from over 5000+ verified respondents.
