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 Ms. Ishita Ghosh

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 Abhishek Das, Raghvi Maheshwari, S.Harikrishnan (Students)

 17 August 2010

 Research Proposal



 ? 
 An enquiry into the trends in travel and travel related

expenditure of an average Pune household.

 
 Recent trends indicate that a large section of the Indian population is going on

holidays more often and the average amount of annual travel expenditure has gone up by a

few times. In this project, we will conduct a detailed enquiry about the travel destinations that

people often visit; their purpose of travel and their annual expenditure on travel. This study

will help us estimate the increasing expenditure on travel of an average household in Pune

and to study the psyche behind splurging on leisure instead of the conventional habit of

saving.


 We will conduct our survey in Pune, Maharashtra. Pune being a cosmopolitan

city and housing a large number of young professionals and high earning individuals; who

don¶t mind spending a large chunk of their income on leisure, would give us a better insight

into the recent trends. We primarily plan to go about by conducting surveys in the areas of

Shivaji Nagar, Kothrud, Aundh, Baner, Balewadi, Camp, Koregaon Park and Kalyani Nagar

for approximately 30 hours over a period of 6 weeks. We will also take the help of secondary

data to be informed of the prices of packaged tours, tickets and that of accommodation.


 We will engage in personal interactions through questionnaires from 20th August to

30th September for approximately 5 hours a week and will be covering about 160 households.
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The information gathered during the course of these interactions would serve as the primary

data for our research.


 { 
 We will be guided by the surveys and observations from the

primary and secondary sources. Surveys serve the purpose of accurate and authentic primary

data collection. While we choose to observe the set of people over a time frame to know

about their preferences and reactions specific to travelling and the annual expenditure they

would incur for it; we will also make use of secondary data to be abreast about the prices of

packaged tours and the number of people consulting a travel agent before planning their

holidays.




1. Conduct a survey regarding the research topic.

2. Interact with people for five hours a week for six weeks focusing mainly on the

frequency of their travel, places they visit often, preferred mode of commuting and

their average annual expenditure for this purpose.

3. Prepare a questionnaire for the people to be interviewed to give an insight into the

research topic. While the interviews won¶t be formal and structured, the kind of

questions we¶ll ask will include the following:

· How often do you go out on trips?

· What is the main purpose of your visits ± business or leisure?

· Which are the places that you visit often?

· What is your preferred mode of commuting- air, rail or road?

· What is your net annual income?

· How much do you spend on such trips on an average in a year?

4. Undertake a detailed analysis of the data obtained during the course of the interviews.

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 5. Write a research report that combines our analysis of the obtained data and the

previous trends of the travel industry and brings out the relevance of the study by

coming out with an appropriate conclusion.



Prepare proposal by 17 August

Complete fieldwork by 30 September

Complete analysis by 5 October

Give presentation on 8 October

Complete final report by 12 October


 Time constraints of the semester restrict us in our research. By conducting a

survey for only about five hours a week, we are also bound to be very limited in case of

people we can interview. Also, the people might be guarded and might not provide complete

and true information as it involves sharing information regarding their income and

expenditure.


 We are choosing to limit our surveys to only the aforementioned localities

because of our inability to cover vast areas. Also, we will not use structured interviews in

order to minimise our unwelcomed conspicuousness.

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X www.tripadvisor.com

X www.makemytrip.com

X www.travelbizmonitor.com

X www.india-reports.com/tourism 

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