New destinations find their way to Indian itineraries

Hotel Price Index report from Hotels.com identifies top destinations travellers paid for their accommodation in 2017.

After three years of flat prices, travellers paid for overnight accommodation rose 2% globally in 2017, according to the latest Hotel Price Index (HPI) from Hotels.com. In a year where crypto currencies flooded the market, hashtags took over the red carpet and political debate turned well, political, the needle also moved for travellers, with a two-point rise in the global Index to 116, the closest it has been to the 2007 peak of 118. Every regional Index, except for North America, grew in 2017, signalling strong growth in the travel industry.

The HPI was set at 100 in its inaugural year, 2004. The index format allows Hotels.com to highlight year-over-year variations in actual prices paid* per night by travellers without foreign exchange fluctuations distorting the picture.

Johan Svanstrom, President – Hotels.com said, “The slight increase in average accommodation prices globally combined with numerous markets having record visitor growth signals a strong travel economy and a growing desire from consumers to experience the world. Cultural events have inspired travel more than ever before as we aspire not to just stand by and observe the action, but to instead actually be part of it. ”

Due to the implementation of new economic policies and GST in 2017, which introduced multiple tax slabs to cover different hotel categories, Indian hotel prices have witnessed an increase for the year.

Owing to the swelling Indian travel and tourism industry, it’s not all doom and gloom when it comes to accommodation prices domestically and globally. The HPI 2017 also revealed that despite the overall price increase for accommodation globally, outbound Indian travellers paid less per room per night in six of the top 10 (USA, UK, Malaysia, Germany, Indonesia and Italy) outbound destinations. This could be caused by the strong performance of the Rupee in 2017, which rose 5.5% against the US dollar in 2017.