Mumbai, April 2: The appreciating rupee has encouraged many Indians to travel to the US.

According to Zubin Karkaria, CEO and managing director of Kuoni Travel Group (India), the number of Indians travelling to the US for leisure went up by almost 25 to 30 per cent last year.

The rupee appreciated around 15 per cent against the dollar in 2007.

In 2006, over 5,62,000 Indians visited the US, of which 35 per cent were on a leisure trip. However, next year, the number swelled to 6,14,000, of which about 40 per cent were travelling for leisure. Others had gone for work or for academic or business purposes.

Kuoni’s tourism survey conducted on 2,818 individuals showed the US to be the most preferred destination, followed by Singapore, the UK and Switzerland.

In their choice of foreign destinations, Indians preferred beach resorts, hill stations and amusement parks to places of historical importance or jungle reserves.

“It was found that the greatest desire among Indians after buying a house is to travel abroad with their family,” said Karkaria.

Within India, most people said they preferred hill stations. The study revealed that the rate of growth in outbound tourists was 15 per cent last year.

Compared to this, only about four million foreigners visited India in 2007, a growth rate of 5.9 per cent.

The number is projected to go up to nine million by 2020, well below the government’s target of 15 million.

Indians also spend well when they travel abroad.

“Indians were found to be the second largest spenders in both Malaysia and Singapore, shelling out an average of around $1,366 per person per trip. They also ranked among the top three spenders among tourists in Australia,” said B. Sanjit Shastri, CEO of Beehive Communications, which prepared the travel report along with Kuoni.

According to Kuoni, the travel retail market is estimated to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 15 per cent between 2005 and 2010, reaching Rs 55,600 crore by 2010.

Online travel is expected to grow at a rate of 36 per cent per annum between 2005 and 2010 and is likely to reach Rs 9,100 crore by 2010.

This growth will be driven by air tickets and dynamic pricing of products, including hotel rooms.

“China, Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey and Russia were seen as the emerging destinations last year and more flights on these routes will be welcome,” said Karkaria.