India has emerged as the top travel destination in Asia this summer for travelers 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-haul2 destination for UK travelers. As of 14 June 2019, just under 87,000 advanced bookings had been made3 in the UK through all global distribution systems (GDS) for return flights to India scheduled between Friday 28 June 2019 and Sunday 8 September 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%) year-on-year, China was the fastest growing top ten long-haul destination for UK travelers compared to the same period the previous year.
Martin Herbert, Regional Managing Director – India and Sri Lankaat 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 at InterGlobe Technology Quotient (ITQ), commented: “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.
