Adventure travel and Indian youth

In the selected sample size (and in open questions at Facebook), 87% of the respondents fall in the age group ’18-25’ thereby indicating the adventure travel trends majorly among the youth. 9% of the respondents fall under the age group ’25-40’ and the remaining 4% to ‘the less than 18’ age group. The respondents belonging to the latter group are those who have not experienced much of adventure when compared to the others. 67% of the respondents are women, the concept of adventure among women has improved and they also want to and have experienced adventure in the same way as the 33% of the male respondents. 54% of the respondents are students and even those who are in other professions are young and belong to the age group 18-25 as mentioned earlier.



This gives an idea as to what the respondents feel about an extreme adrenaline rush before actually branching put into their take on adventure travel. From the various categories that the respondents have indicated, it is clear they many of them don’t relate adventure to adrenaline rush and it can be anything interesting and different from getting lost to something emotional and also the idea of just being uncertain and having butterflies in your stomach…



80% of the respondents feel that adventure is defined as fun and exciting with 18% and only 2% of them feel that it can be taken as cheap thrills…



Today, adventure does not come as something cheap unless it is self-initiated and planned. The minute it is handed over to be planned by a professional to some exotic place it becomes expensive. Yet, adventure by 80% of the respondents is reasonable and affordable. This can be attributed to the fact that adventure is easily available to all…



56% of the respondents have been on an adventure trip before. This indicates that adventure is picking up with respect to awareness in India, though these respondents have also traveled to exotic locations abroad…



Out of the 56% of the respondents who have been on an adventure trip, 40% of them are thse who have traveled abroad. Besides that 30% have explored adventure travel in South India and 18% in the North. putting it all togerther, India on the whole seems to be the country more explored by our respondents with 60% of them having stuck to a domestic adventure trip. With respect to what the respondents did, most of them had gone in for soft adventure activities such as trekking, scuba diving, nature walks etc. Though there were some who considered driving at high speeds as an adventure too!



This indicates the popularity that adventure travel has gained… as more than 66% of the respondents who have made an adventure trip are those that have done so in the recent past.



The 44% of the respondents who had not taken an adventure trip when posed the above question were positive about the same with 88% of them willing to take an adventure trip with just 12% of the hesistant ones.



Most of the respondents have opted for all the three parameters and from the above it is evident that Company matters the most followed by Safety and then Cost. This shows that the respondents feel that Company is valued when on an adventure trip as the nature of an Indian by large is to be social.



60% of the respondents feel that Friends would be the best company when on an adventure trip followed by 24% who say family. When it comes to a group of enthusiasts, the respondents feel that the friends and the family they go with should be enthusiasts of the same. Also they should be the ones who would leave their fears behind, all set to have fun.



66% of the respondents say that a combination of both hard and soft adventure activities is what would be ideal for their adventure holiday.



This chart can be interpreted by taking each number (1, 2, 3 and 4). For instance a rating of 1 denotes one star which is the least important and of this 33% of the respondents feel that Accommodation is least imporatnt, followed by 31% for Dining, 22% for Transportation and 13% for other amenities. When it comes to 4 or four stars, Accomodation tops with 29% of the respondents giving it a high rating. In this case many respondents have rated all the parameters highly and many have rated all low. The above is a consolidation of all the responses.



From the chart it is clear that most of the respondents agree that the adventure travel market will gain more travelers if there is an increase in the elements of luxury offered. Moreover, today there are multiple options that any traveler could choose from – the least expensive with no element of luxury to the very expensive ones where luxury has no limit when it comes to pampering the guests. Ultimately it is the choice of the person to either indulge in such a getaway or not.



Being slightly contradictory to the previous question, 53% of the respondents feel that luxury is not the future of the adventure travel market. But this is definitely a thin line as the choice available to the customers of this adventure travel market are many. It is upto the individual to decide what he or she wants out of the trip.



Whats ON and whats GONE:

Among Indian youth, friends and family continue to be the popular choices while going out in adventure travel…

Luxury seems to be gaining popularity with respect to adventure travel and this will continue into the future with many more adventure options / places being introduced the luxury segment…

Eco-tourism seems to be in trend today and we see all companies promoting green tourism wherein the environment is not exploited and it a way for an individual to connect with the same…

Safety is of big concern to all. Today, the educated youth are aware of the options available to them and they want to have a taste of adventure with a certain degree of risk involved coupled with the utmost levels of safety. Exploring the new is definitely exciting, but fun to many should be exciting and not dangerous. Hence more emphasis on safety will become the buzz word…the so called “cheap thrills” will continue to grow among the bharatiyas where safety will not be considered much…

Moreover apart from these, the South India its gaining its popularity as a hub for adventure…

The uncertainty and self-creativity factor in adventure travel is hot today. Unguided jungle tours, expeditions to places such as Leh and Ladakh into military boundaries, self-initiated trips to unknown places are to name a few when uncertainty is taken into account. Identifying ways where you don’t have a custom-made adventure trip is also one where uncertainty is involved, yet it can give you a sense of personalized achievement.

Soft adventure activities such as wildlife and animal safaris do not seem to be the trend today, at least among Indian youth.
With respect to the importance of company while going on an adventure trip, “being alone in travel” is not a trend in India.

Kaustav SenGupta
INgene