Millennial Indians (those born after 1980) like to travel abroad at least once a year and nine out of ten use their own savings to fund overseas trips, a survey has found.
This is in sharp contrast to the older generation, 88 % of whom hardly ever travelled abroad for leisure, the ICICI Millennial Travel Study said.
The survey, conducted among 1,049 respondents in the age group 25-35 years across Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kolkata revealed that Singapore is the most favoured destination, followed by the US and the UK.
A whopping 80 % of the respondents named culture and heritage as the main driver behind the choice of destination. Around 71 % considered health and hygiene conditions of a country before planning a trip against 41 % in the previous survey conducted in 2013.
Around 57 % of those surveyed preferred a multi-location trip, the main reason being packaged tours and better discounts offered by travel companies.
“Despite being aware and wanting to undertake multi-country trips, very few insure their travel, primarily because of lack of understanding of insurance benefits,” ICICI Lombard General Insurance chief (underwriting, claims and reinsurance) Sanjay Datta said.
To a media query, he said ICICI Lombard had underwritten premium amounting to Rs 100 crore under travel insurance segment last year, which was likely to grow by 5-10 % in the current fiscal year.
The industry currently has a size of Rs 400-500 crore in the country.
Although 90 % millennials surveyed are aware of travel insurance, only 2 of 5 respondents purchased travel insurance for overseas travel, the primary drivers being medical emergency and luggage safety. The biggest problem most millennials felt they would face while travelling were safety issues.
A total of 52 % preferred to travel with their spouses, with Ahmedabad taking the lead. In fact, only 12 % of the country’s millennials travelled alone. Around 79 % of millennials faced budget constraints and 39 % availed of finances for a trip abroad. Almost 47 % of millennials saw an increase in their overseas travel in future.