Destination Europe for Bangaloreans

10 per cent rise in global travel bookings from City

Bangaloreans are heading out for foreign travel much more than before. Here’s proof: As a recent international travel market analysis found, the number of bookings from the City this year grew 10 per cent more than last year.

And the money an average outbound Bangalorean spends on an international holiday has touched a substantial Rs. 1.5 lakh!

Their eyes set mainly on European destinations, the travellers have a distinct profile: Business families, senior professionals, IT professionals and the self-employed such as doctors, lawyers and chartered accountants.

The study by Thomas Cook India also indicated that demand for group tours to Europe from the Bangalore market surpassed that of travel to Far East Asian destinations. 
 
Among individual travellers, the study revealed that almost 75 per cent travel on business. This was expected to grow by 35 per cent annually. Business trips also held the potential to morph into something wider. About 85 per cent of the study’s respondents indicated a willingness to extend their trip to discover the pulse of a city and its surroundings.

The trend had Thomas Cook launch an initiative called “City Breaks.” This was about “focussing on viable emerging segments: the business traveller and the time-poor Indian, hungry for a quick, convenient trip planner- to explore a city rather than merely visit or transit,” as a Thomas Cook official put it.

The initiative, according to the official, has already received about 150 enquiries from Bangalore, mostly from the huge professional diaspora residing in the City. City Breaks will cover 91 favoured global cities, and will look beyond the business traveller to target women tourists, honeymooners and ad hoc groups of friends or families.

Global air connectivity to the city’s Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) has grown over the years, riding high on the perceptible rise in international travellers.

KIA currently has over 27 flight linkages with several key global cities including London, Paris, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Dubai, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Muscat.

With efforts on to get larger aircraft such as the Airbus 380 to land at KIA, and many more international airlines queing up, the passenger traffic between Bangalore and various global destinations is expected to get a further boost soon.