Fitness holidays, trend among Indian tourists

About 95.6 per cent of 18-35 year Indian travellers now consider keeping fit one of the most important parts of their holiday experience, a survey by travel experts Hotels.com said. “There’s been a real evolution in holiday priorities and millennial travellers in particular now demand more from a trip,” Hotels. com Director, Regional Marketing Greater China, SEA and India, Jessica Chuang said. 

The Hotels.com ‘Activacations Survey’ was done among 8,400 adults across 28 countries, by OnePoll. The survey also showed that the rise of the ‘Activacations’ is also down to a barrage of social media ‘fitfluencers’, who are combining sun, sea and sport. Indian millennial travellers are generally looking for richer, more unusual holiday experiences and admit that they use exercise to meet new people (38 pc) and explore new places from a fresh perspective (29.8 pc). 

Wanting to keep a good mood through the vacation (55 per cent) and keeping a check on holiday weight (32.7 per cent) also ranked high as reasons for workout motivation, it added. Many Indian holidaymakers are happy to give up top-notch food (75.6 per cent), relaxing, (61 per cent), sightseeing (36.6 per cent) to get their fitness fix on vacation, it said. 

Fitness is now becoming so ingrained in the holiday experience, demand for superior fitness experiences from hotels has also reached a new high. Free access to all exercise facilities (71.6 per cent), state-of-the-art fitness facilities (23.6 per cent), personal training (33.3 per cent), healthy menus (37 per cent) and complimentary massages after exercise (23.3 per cent) all feature high on the hotel wish list.