Skift India Daily: Indians Turn to Metasearch Engines for Travel Bookings

Editor's Note: Happy Holi, everyone! We will not be publishing our newsletter on Wednesday, March 8, as our India team will be celebrating the Indian festival of colors — Holi. 

Metasearch engines have emerged as the leading channel for travel bookings post-Covid, according to a travel trends report by Adara, a travel martech and data exchange platform. India-headquartered travel tech firm RateGain Travel Technologies has recently acquired Adara. Currently, the share of metasearch in bookings accounts for 80 percent of all bookings made, as per the Trends for Indian Travelers (Outbound) report. Thailand emerged as the most preferred destination post-pandemic, the report stated. Ever since it has eased travel norms, leisure travel from India to Thailand almost reached the pre-pandemic level, rising to 69 percent in 2023. Further findings reveal that the U.S. remains the top searched destination in India with an average share of 25 percent, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with an average search share of 15 percent. The UAE, U.S., Singapore, UK, Australia, and Thailand have maintained the top positions when it comes to international holiday bookings from India. Maldives saw a pandemic boom, however, as the bigger countries opened up for tourism, the demand has replicated the pre-pandemic trend, the report stated.  

After U.S., Russia is also working on easing visa procedures for six countries, including India, Syria and Indonesia. “In addition to India (procedures simplification) ... is being worked out with Angola, Vietnam, Indonesia, Syria and Philippines,” said Evgeny Ivanov, deputy foreign minister of Russia. The easing of visa regulations would certainly be an incentive, especially as the wait for visas keeps getting longer for Indian passport holders. Earlier Skift had reported that Russia also plans to launch electronic visa f