As the travel season picks up, Indians are planning overseas trips with renewed enthusiasm. New data from Airbnb reveals that long-haul favourites such as the US, UK and cities across Europe feature prominently in guest searches overseas, with London, Dubai, Paris, Toronto and New York ranking the top searched overseas cities by Indians in Q3 2022. Domestically, Indians are exploring popular beach destinations the hills of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand as well as the North-Eastern region. Overall nights booked in India grew by almost half, while domestic nights booked grew by almost 80 percent in Q3 2022 when compared to Q3 2019.
While interest in traditionally popular destinations remains high, Indians are also expanding their travel horizons and looking to explore new overseas destinations. Airbnb saw a whopping increase of more than 1250 percent in searches for stays in Turkey, over 750 percent increase in searches in Norway and over 625 percent increase in searches for Portugal from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022, and a more than 600 percent increase in searches for South Africa. Other trending overseas destinations include Poland and Finland (both more than 500 percent), Greece (over 450 percent) and South Korea (over 400 percent).
When travelling, Indian guests are searching for amenities that help facilitate flexible new ways of traveling and living, with pools, WIFI, kitchens, air conditioner and washer all making up the top five most searched filters.
This winter will continue to see guests visit destinations both near and far, seeking sun, sand and water. The top five booked categories by Indians this winter are Tropical, National Park, Pool, Beach and Iconic cities.
For shorter getaways, Indians are enjoying reconnecting with destinations domestically. When comparing Q3 2022 with pre-pandemic Q3 2019, overall nights booked in India grew by almost half, while domestic nights booked grew by almost 80 percent.
The North East region of India has proved to be a trending destination amongst Indian travellers. Airbnbs search data shows an increase of over 450 percent in searches for stays in Meghalaya, over 400 percent increase in searches for Assam and almost 300 percent increase in searches for Nagaland from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022.
Locally, Indian travellers are also exploring the popular beach destinations of Kerala (over 375 percent increase in searches from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022), Goa (almost 275 percent increase in searches) and Pondicherry (over 200 percent increase) as well as the hill stations of Uttarakhand (over 100 percent increase in searches) and Himachal Pradesh (over 50 percent increase in searched from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022).
The most searched for domestic cities by Indians include Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kochi and Dehradun.
Amanpreet Bajaj, Airbnb’s General Manager for India, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, said: "As travel resumes across the globe, Airbnb is seeing a surge in interest amongst Indian travellers to venture overseas as well as explore destinations locally. Popular travel hotspots of Europe, United Kingdom and United States remain high on Indian travellers' bucket lists. Closer to home destinations such as Thailand, Dubai, Indonesia and Singapore also remain popular, as do local beach and hill destinations across India. This growing appetite for travel is a positive sign as tourism recovery gathers pace. Airbnb is also committed to working collaboratively with communities across India to make sure locals living in off-the-beaten track destinations can also share in the economic benefits of travel."