Indians spent most for health and medical on overnight trips

New Delhi, Jun 29 () Indians on an average spent more than Rs 15,000 on overnight trips for health and medical reasons during July 2014 and June 2015, with shopping coming down the order, according to NSSO's latest survey. The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) today released findings of its report -- Key Indicators of Domestic Tourism in India -- as part of the NSS 72nd Round, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) said in a statement. "Health and medical trips were the costliest overnighttrips with average expenditure per trip of Rs 15,336 followedby those with the leading purpose of shopping (Rs 13,902),"the report revealed.In the current round, an overnight trip is defined asduration of stay of more than 12 hours, including midnight 12to 5 am, whereas in the previous round, the duration coveredat least two calendar days, wholly or partly.The results of the survey, which covered whole of India,are based on the NSSO sample which consisted of 8,001 villagesand 6,061 urban blocks spread over all the states and UnionTerritories."During last 365 days from the date of the survey, 19 percent of Indian households reported at least one overnight tripwith any one of the leading purposes as holidaying, leisureand recreation, health and medical and shopping," the reportsaid.A majority of overnight trips at all-India level (287.2lakh from rural and 79.2 lakh from urban areas), which werecompleted during the last 365 days, were for the major purposeof health and medical, it added."Nearly half (48 per cent) of all single member tripsundertaken by members from a particular household wereperformed by females in both rural and urban areas for leadingpurpose of health and medical," it revealed.Summer (May-June) was the peak period for undertakinga trip for the primary purpose of holidaying, leisure andrecreation, whereas winter (December-February) was thepreferred season for shopping trips.Religious and pilgrimage trips happened more frequentlyduring July and August.The share of visitor trips for heath and medical purposefrom rural areas (48 per cent) was nearly twice that of urbanareas (25 per cent)."Average number of nights spent on overnight visitortrips during last 365 days with any one of leading purposes asholidaying, leisure and recreation, health and medical andshopping were 5.4 nights and 6.7 nights in rural andurban areas, respectively," the report said.At an all-India level, the main destination of most ofthe overnight visitor trips -- over 80 per cent -- was withinstates. RNKARD