Source Name: Skyscanner

Skyscanner Reveals: 43% Women Spend More on Food than Shopping While Travelling

Feb 05, 2015   15:18 PM 
New Delhi, Delhi, India

  • More than half of Indian travellers leave their diet plans at home when on a holiday

  • Food becomes a priority over shopping as more and more women want to binge first

  • The convenience of plastic money is the way to go when holidaying in foreign countries

 


 

 

According to a recent survey revealed by Skyscanner, a leading global travel search engine, highlighting the eating and spending habits amongst travellers, women have let out a collective cheer for food over shopping when holidaying. 59% of the women surveyed, prefer spending more on food in preference to sight-seeing and adventure sports (18%), or even shopping (35%).

 

"Skyscanner’s ‘Food and Spending’ survey discloses the habits of Indian travellers on the go. Not only do they choose to travel to off-beat locations for un-conventional adventure sports, but the Indian traveller today also experiments with food and is keen to explore the local culture of their holiday destination. Skyscanner’s search engine, designed to show the best prices for the maximum of travel options available to Indian travellers, is the perfect tool to guide adventurous Indians as they plan, book and explore their travel hot-spot”, said Kavitha Gnanamurthy, Senior Marketing Manager, Skyscanner India.

 

Light bites are the best travel companion

Indians are known for their love for food so it’s no surprise that Indian travellers ensure that they carry their favourite namkeen when holidaying oversees. The survey reveals that even though Matthi and Khakra top the charts in the packed snacks category, Indians love exploring the local food at their holiday spot. While 42% of the Indian travellers spend money on food as opposed to other activities, a mere 38% watch their diet. So be it the passion for food or the love for food photographs on Instagram – food is the new travel companion for all!

Say yes to plastic money

With only 24% of travellers making cash payments and a mere 9% using ATMs in foreign countries, use of plastic money is the most popular mode of monetary transactions when travelling overseas. Though a small number (8%), but traveller’s cheque as a mode of payment is fast gaining popularity amongst Indian travellers. When it comes to currency conversion, the survey noted that 53% of travellers prefer converting currencies at Banks vis-à-vis Airport arrivals (23%) and Departure Airports (17%). The survey also reveals that only 8% of Indian travellers invest the balance currency, 37% encash it, 28% restore it for their next travel and 22% choose to spend the remains at duty free.

Increasing spirit of exploration in 2015

Though Indians have just returned back from the holiday season, the process of planning trips to unexplored territories in 2015 has begun already. With seven extended weekends in 2015, the year will surely see a surge in travel! To help travellers spot their next great adventure, Skyscanner recently revealed a list of top nine destinations that it expects will strike a chord with travel fanatics in the current year. These hot spots range from sun-kissed islands of Taipei to mainstream, well-known destinations such as Mykonos and Colombo to the more intrepid destinations of Siem Reip. Full list can be found here.

About Skyscanner:

  • Skyscanner is a leading global travel search site offering an unbiased, comprehensive and free flight search service as well as instant online comparisons for hotels and car hire.

  • Having launched in 2003, it is now helping 25 million unique visitors each month to find the best deals, through powerful technology we have built across our website and mobile app.

  • With more than 400 employees spanning 35 nationalities across six global offices – Edinburgh, Glasgow, Singapore, Beijing, Miami, Barcelona, Skyscanner places great emphasis on its global flight coverage, with search available in over 30 languages and 70 currencies.

  • Skyscanner’s highly-rated free mobile apps are available on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Windows 8 devices and have been downloaded over 30 million times.

  • For more information, visit our press office or our company blog.