Entertainment
Majority of travellers planning shorter getaways during festivals: Survey
New Delhi, Sep 29 (IANS) With Diwali and Dussehra falling closer to the weekend, 73 percent travellers are finding this as the perfect opportunity to escape from their monotonous city schedules to indulge in short getaways, says a survey conducted by online travel portal Yatra.com.
The portal conducted its annual survey highlighting the travel trends for this festive season on 2700 respondents in which 67 percent respondents said they are planning to travel during the festival season, leveraging the long weekends.
Also with festivals like Diwali and Dussehra closer to the weekend, 73 percent travellers are seeing this as an opportunity to go for short getaways, said a statement.
Led by airlines flash sales, the trend of booking in advance continues to be on the rise with a whopping 40 percent respondents booking at least 1-3 months in advance from their travel date.
Travellers seem to be choosing accommodation wisely, with 42 percent and 25 percent opting for 3-4 star hotels and budget hotels, respectively.
Travellers are increasingly travelling for leisure and embarking on domestic travel for shorter trips which are considerably more affordable. Only 22.7 percent respondents said that they would prefer taking an international vacation.
Another key observation derived out of the survey was about Indian travellers preferring to travel with their families during festivals, with 63% falling under the category. 42 percent of the respondents said that they are looking at the festive season as a time to head out of the city or the country to explore new destinations and cultures.
Commenting on the findings from the survey, Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C), Yatra.com, said “The discerning Indian travellers are breaking away from the conventional mind-set of staying or visiting hometown during festival, especially if it’s closer to a weekend. Indian travellers today are open to discovering new destinations for quick weekend getaways along with traditional sightseeing vacations.
“Factors like cheaper air fares and low tariffs for budget hotels are increasingly making budget travel an attractive option.”
The survey also revealed that Facebook is the most popular social media platform amongst the travellers with 83 percent of the respondents saying they use Facebook to post vacation updates.
However, 33 percent of the respondents said that they are completely off social media during a vacation.
–IANS
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Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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