By: Rang7 Team September 8, 2011
The holiday trends of an average Kolkatan now follows a new motto: To cut a long story short….
Changing times have led to a change in habits. A week long holiday is now instead reduced to weekend trips at frequent intervals. Bengalis are now following the trend which has been practiced by a Mumbaikar for many years now. So apart from Darjeeling and Puri in Orissa which are major tourist attractions in the east, other tourist destinations close to Kolkata such as Digha, Raichak, Santiniketan, Dooars, Kalimpong and Shankarpur have emerged as popular holiday hot spots.
Bengalis have always been known to take long holidays, stretching to seven to ten days at a time during West Bengal’s traditional and most awaited festival, Durga Puja, as well as during the summer season. In the past such holidays used to be restricted to just one such event a year. But with changing times, the long holidays have been cut short to two to three days, but with a higher frequency of two to three times a year.
The new holiday trend has been divided into many parts: Bengalis in the past most often chose to travel to far away places, but now tourist destinations close to Kolkata are witnessing a larger influx of tourist from the city. Also earlier Bengalis traveled in large groups or with big families. Today a higher percentage of Kolkatans travel single or in nuclear family groups. Though a good 25.65% of holidayers still go in groups of more than five persons, 34.43% of holidayers are either single or a couple.
Tourist from Kolkata emerge fourth on the list of domestic tourist in India after Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, whereas in winter the city climbs to the third spot, as holidaying tends have shown that in the winter people in the south limit their travel to their region only. On a comparative note, tourist from Mumbai and Kolkata are willing to explore outside their region more often.
However one trend still remains constant with tourist from Kolkata is that most still fall in the budget tourist group category. 45.49% Kolkatans are willing to spend less than Rs 1,500 per night and 24.76% are open to spending Rs 1,500-3,000 per night.
Source: http://www.rang7.com/news/tourism/tourist-from-kolkata-seek-shorter-but-more-frequent-route-909.htm