Insight Vacations, Europe‟s premier escorted tour operator, today revealed its survey findings about Singapore travellers. The survey findings were polled from over 5,000 recent travellers.

The findings revealed that from the total Singapore travellers, 58% were females as compared to 42% males. The age group of 43 to 65 years or the “baby boomers” constituted 48% of the total travelers. The next biggest group was the young professionals aged 21 to 42 years. Insight Vacations has seen the young professionals which include honeymooners being the fastest growing group of travellers in recent years.

Ms Sheryl Lim, Regional Director Asia of Insight Vacations, said: “The findings confirmed our observation that as more females are financially independent, they tend to take more leisure trips than the males. The baby boomers which constituted 48% of the total travellers are the ones who have more time to travel. However, we have seen that the fastest growing group among the travellers in recent years is the young professionals. They are mobile, young and eager to see the world”.

The findings also revealed that 66% of the total travelled with their spouses, 12% travelled with relatives, 14% with friends and only a small 8% travelled alone. There is a growing trend among Singapore travellers to go to Eastern Europe.

Ms Lim, commented: “Tours to Central Europe such as Italy, France, Germany and the U.K. are still popular among Singapore travellers. However, we see an increasing interest in Singaporeans taking our East European tours. In this regard, we have added tours to new destinations such as Poland, Crimea and Ukraine for 2012”.

In choosing the tours, Singapore travellers paid attention to the places visited (40%). Hassle-free tours ranked high in their choice – 38% and the price/value of the tour is also important (36%). Singapore travellers are also particular about the hotels they will be staying in during the tour. This ranked 30% from the survey findings and the reputation of the travel agency is an important factor for making the choice (29%), too.

Insight Vacations also revealed that it had introduced the „Insight Gold‟ segment for the premium travellers last year.

“We have a full range of touring styles to suit all aspects of Singapore travellers. The premium travel tours were not affected at all even in the last downturn. In view of this, we launched „Insight Gold‟ last year which is meant for the high-end travellers. We are pleased with the response to Insight Gold last year and we are confident that this segment will grow with the affluent Singaporeans,” remarked Robin Yap, Managing Director of Insight‟s parent company, The Travel Corporation.

*Prices are for land tours only, airfares are calculated separately.