Only 5% of Indians in cities holiday for leisure: Survey-TNN, Oct 24, 2010,

Only 5% of Indians in cities holiday for leisure: Survey

Mahendra Kumar Singh, TNN, Oct 24, 2010, 02.47am IST

NEW DELHI: Indians did not travel for leisure or fun as most of them toured to meet social or religious obligations, reveals a government survey. According to the latest NSSO survey, visits for the social purpose accounted for 75% of overnight trips in rural India, and 71% in urban areas.

Around 9% of overnight trips were due to pilgrimage for rural folks. While, the corresponding figure for the urban population is 12%.

Holidaying, leisure and recreation was a privilege for only 5% and 2% of urban and rural populace, respectively, says the survey.

Trips on social purpose — for both rural and urban population — accounted for about 43% of all their expenditures. Journey for health and medical grounds had a share of 30% spending for the rural population, and 15% for the urban. Religious and pilgrimage trips cost about 11% in the rural sector and about 14% in the urban. The spending is more on social visits. Urban India spent Rs 989 and rural population Rs 466 per trip during 2008-09. On an average, an urban Indian spent Rs 700 per day on a religious visit as compared to Rs 350 in rural areas. The maximum expenditure was on travel followed by shopping, eating and accommodation.

While lesser number of people travelled for leisure, the expenditure on such trips was almost double than that for religion mostly on account of high cost of accommodation. According to the report, 72% of Indians travel to meet friends and family at least once a year. And, the average period of these visits is three to four days. Interestingly, in case of 85% of rural and 80% of urban travellers, the visitors stayed with friends and relatives for the major part of their stay.

Only 42% of the population travel once every year overnight for various reasons, with Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh being exceptions. In J&K, overnight travellers were 84% of the population, and in Himachal they were 77%. The states, where average overnight travel was higher than the national average, were Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Overnight travel among residents of most north-eastern states was found to be the lowest among all Indians. The share of transport in expenditure was 20% in rural areas, but as much as 33% in urban India. The share of shopping was 30% in rural India, and 25% in urban India.