The Indian Traveller Wines & Dines His Way through Vacation

-          One-third of respondents say they have attended a wine/whiskey tour while on holiday

-          40 percent respondents have attended a food & beverage festival on holiday

The Indian traveller seems to be willing to indulge his taste buds while on a holiday. According to a Food and Travel survey conducted by TripAdvisor® – the world’s largest travel planning site, 97 percent respondents said they are comfortable with trying diverse Indian food while travelling domestically. The real surprise, however, is to see a whopping 91 percent willing to experiment with local cuisine when holidaying internationally. The survey was taken by 1000 respondents across India.

Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager of TripAdvisor India elucidates, “33 percent of the total respondents from our survey said they have attended a wine/whiskey tour while on a holiday. Among those who hadn’t, almost half expressed their interest in attending one if given a chance indicating a latent opportunity for wine and dine tourism within India as well as promoting such international fests & tours for the outbound traveller. The trend was similar, in fact more pronounced, for food & beverage festivals. Another encouraging trend is that 25 percent respondents say they have chosen a holiday destination specifically to experiment with the local food.”

More Palate on your plate

The trends mentioned above represent that Indians are becoming adventurous gourmands while on a holiday. Other survey findings supporting this are:

·      A majority of 64 percent respondents are more likely to explore quaint local eateries as against the popular restaurants frequented by tourists. A low 14 percent hunt for Indian dining options for most meals & only 15 percent prefer to stick to familiar international food while abroad.

·      While 41 percent said they start craving for home food on holiday after more than 5 days, 40 percent said they don't particularly miss home food even when holidaying internationally.

Interestingly, 38 percent admitted to carrying Indian food when travelling internationally on holiday (like snacks, namkeen, pickles or Maggi) which they miss eating or which may not be available at their destination.

Check, please

·      Only 17 percent respondents said they always convert meal/dish prices into Indian Rupees to decide if a dish is too expensive to order with an equal percent saying they never do that. 66 percent still admitted to doing the math at least sometimes when travelling internationally.

·      42 percent respondents said they would be fine spending between Rs. 500-1000 per meal per person when travelling internationally. However, only 20percent respondents think it’s justified to spend that much money on a domestic holiday.

More women compared to men…

·      …said they have attended a wine/whisky tour.

·      …have attended a food and beverage festival.

·      …are likely to go to quaint and small eateries known mostly to locals instead of popular tourist  options

·      …like to try local food for almost all their meals compared to men

·      …said they will explore local cuisine and find new places to dine when travelling international

Also,

·      8 percent more men carry Indian snacks and food internationally compared to women

·      Among vegetarians, 21percent more men find travelling internationally daunting cause of lack of veg options

·      40 percent men said they carry Indian food when travelling international while only 32 percent women opted for the same.

The Veg Veto

Finding great meal options does seem like a challenge for the herbivore compared to the meat eaters

·      65 percent vegetarians carry non perishable food items when travelling internationally compared to only 25 percent of non vegetarian respondents.

·      Owing to the lack of dining options, vegetarians miss homemade food more than their counterparts.

·      55 percent said they would definitely or sometimes be deterred from going on holiday to an international destination which predominantly has non-vegetarian cuisine, because of lack of enough vegetarian dining options. This might prove to be ‘food for thought’ for countries wooing Indian tourists.

·      82 percent vegetarian respondents are comfortable with trying local cuisine internationally as compared to 96 percent when in India.

·      50 percent vegetarian respondents would look for Indian dining options for most meals or prefer to find familiar international food compared to only 17 percent non vegetarians.

Collective appetite of the cities!

Food and Travel trends from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai

·     With the highest percentage of respondents comfortable with trying different cuisines, Delhiites are the most

Experimental when it comes to food.

·     Delhiites also seem to be the biggest foodies as majority respondents from the city said they would be interested to attend a food & beverage festival on a vacation.

·     Bangaloreans and Delhiites are the biggest spendthrifts when it comes to food. Both cities have the highest percent of respondents who are willing to spend more than Rs 1000 per person per meal.

·    Both Delhi & Mumbai have equal and highest respondents who had attended a wine/whiskey tour while on holiday.

·    Chennai-ites are the most price-sensitive with highest percentage of respondents who said they always convert meal/dish prices into Indian Rupees to decide if a dish is too expensive to order.

·    Bangaloreans & Chennai-ites are the most experimental when it comes to finding quaint eateries.