India has emerged as the top tourist destination in Asia this summer for travellers from the United Kingdom (UK), according to analysis conducted by trip booking platform Travelport. Globally, it ranked just behind the United States, the most popular long-haul destination for UK travellers.
As of June 14, 2019, just under 87,000 advanced bookings had been made in the UK through all global distribution systems (GDS) for return flights to India scheduled between June 28, 2019 and September 8, 2019. Flight bookings to other Asian countries like Thailand and China stood at 49,137 and 29,870 respectively.
The data highlighted the push to develop closer ties with India at all levels post-Brexit.
Martin Herbert, Regional Managing Director – India and Sri Lanka at Travelport, said, “It’s exciting news for Indian tourism to see the country attracting more bookings than both China and Thailand combined. This trend is fuelling increased booking volume and we expect to see it continue in the years to come.”
Global distribution systems (GDS) are vast hi-tech reservation networks that allow travel agents, travel management companies and large corporations, among others, to search and book airline seats, hotel rooms, rental cars, and other travel-related items. Globally in 2018, Travelport alone processed 1 trillion transactions through its platform. The company also delivers mobile services and apps to the travel industry as well as advanced analytics products, such as Travelport Business Intelligence.