 |
| A majestic view of Delhi's Red Fort [Photo©news.BDTV.in] |
New Delhi: This New Year, majority
of Delhiites may reduce their holiday budget by about 40 per cent than last
year due to rising inflation, according to a new Assocham survey.
They may plan to take a
shorter holiday trip nearer to their home like Agra and Jaipur the survey
added.
"This New Year
season majority of Delhilites are likely to take a shorter holiday trip, nearer
to their homes and reduced their budget by 40 per cent than the last year due
to rising cost," it said.
Majority of respondents
said they would go on a vacation to destinations within or around Delhi, like
Jaipur, Agra, Shimla, Nainital or Kasauli, as these options are more
affordable, Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.
Around 82% of the
respondents said that ‘Jaipur’ is their first priority and attracting many more
visitors followed by Agra this year. Shima and Nanital are third and fourth on
the list of favoured holiday The chamber said it has surveyed about 2,500
executives working in different sectors like finance, IT/ITeS, insurance,
infrastructure and FMCG.
The survey said majority
of families going on a holiday between end of December 2012 and beginning of
January 2013 are expected to spend an average of Rs 10,000 to 15,000 on the
trip, which is about 40 per cent less than their last year's budget.
Even the duration of the
holiday planned is down to an average 2 nights this season from 3 to 5 nights
last year, the survey further said.
However, about 15 per
cent respondents said they have set aside higher budgets for trips to
destinations including Goa, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar and Rajasthan, it said.
The survey points out
that nearly 52% of families have planned their ‘family trips’ this year along
with their children and rest 48% will go along their friends, the survey highlights.
Occupancy rates for New
Year eve at major tourists destinations especially in North, West and deep
South India has so far the capacity utilization of merely 50% and is unlikely
to exceed this limit, as per Assocham estimates which have directly come to it
from hospitality and services sector of its constituents.
Coming back to tourists,
Mr. Rawat pointed out that last year, over five to six lakh tourists had
visited various tourists destinations such as Jaipur, Udaipur, Massourie,
Nanital, Shimla, Kullu-Manali, Kashmir valley, Goa, Mysore and Trivantapuram to
celebrate their Christmas and New Year eve’s holidays.
However, Massourie and
Nanital will remains the best tourist destinations for North Indians as
tourists can attain twin objectives their - one is that of site seeing and
another of religious tourism as both Haridwar and Rishikesh are nearer to
Massourie and that of Nanda Devi close to Nainital.