News Broadcasting
Indian consumers prefer holiday abroad this festive season
MUMBAI: A new IBM Social Sentiment analysis of 250,000 online conversations reveals the travel preferences of Indian consumers – which point to consumer interest and enthusiasm for spending holidays abroad. The preferred international holiday destination for 2013 is London and preferred domestic holiday destination is Goa.
According to the latest IBM Social Sentiment analysis, travel and hospitality was trending as high as 33 percent of all social conversation tracked, indicating a particularly high volume of discussions about flying, driving and vacation with family and friends, among others. The IBM “Desire Ratio” – the proportion of positive versus negative comments – indicates that 59 percent of people are “looking forward” to taking vacation this December.
Diving deeper into the social dialogue, ‘destinations’ emerged as the dominant theme being discussed. Positive sentiment associated with ‘luxury destinations’ also showed a huge surge. People’s choices for travel and vacation destinations primarily revolved around service and experience, while price was a key driver when it comes to hospitality and travel agents.
In the era of Big Data, amidst the explosion of social media, measuring public sentiment through social listening can help travel industry chief marketing officers tap real time trends and customize incentives and services to be more in tune with what customers are asking for, using data to tailor their offerings to address fast-moving trends and real time customer needs.
“Measuring social sentiment has the potential to enable the travel industry to design travel offers and services tailored to what travelers are telling us,” said Dr Lata Iyer, Partner, Global Business Services, IBM India & South Asia. “Big data has the power to offer new insights to the travel industry including airlines, hotels and other travel providers that can translate customer desires into irresistible offers that they will welcome.”
The IBM Social Sentiment Index combines sophisticated analytics and natural language processing technologies to gauge consumer public opinions from Twitter, blogs, message boards and other social media. In this instance, the Index was used to measure and understand consumer views around the holiday travel season in the India from the period of September 1 – December 12 in 2013.
Additional insights from the IBM Social Sentiment Index for holiday travel include:
·Top travel preference – International destinations received the most buzz (32 percent) on all social media channels. London is the most mentioned destination city, while Thailand emerged as the most recurring country in social conversations.
·Preferred Indian cities – Goa is the ‘buzziest’ travel destination in India, followed by Delhi-Agra-Jaipur and Golden-Temple. Taj Mahal followed by Golden-Temple is top most mentioned monuments in social media content. Beaches and palaces are top places to visit on people’s vacation agendas. Kerala tops the charts for being the top trending state in India.
·Luxury travel drives positivity- Luxury establishments garnered both very high affinity with positive sentiments and highest proportion of positive sentiments.
·Up in the air on air travel – For a mode of transportation air travel has highest proportion of negative sentiments.
The wealth of online content around travel from public conversations on social media has become very influential in how people determine their travel plans. Understanding the positive, neutral and negative nuances of their conversations and who is influential can help airlines, hoteliers and other travel service providers market better products and services to their customers.
News Broadcasting
Rising Bharat Summit 2026 spotlights India’s global ascent
PM Modi keynotes two-day event with ministers, diplomats and icons in New Delhi.
MUMBAI: India didn’t just host a summit, it threw a coming-out party for a nation ready to own the global stage. The News18 Rising Bharat Summit 2026, held on 27–28 February in New Delhi, emerged as a high-octane platform for ideas, vision and strategic dialogue, uniting national leadership, global policymakers, industry titans, defence strategists and cultural icons under the theme “Strength Within”.
Prime minister Narendra Modi set the tone with a keynote that framed India’s resurgence as a reclaiming of lost potential built over generations. “In previous industrial revolutions, India and the Global South were merely followers,” he said. “But in the era of Artificial Intelligence, India is a partner in decisions and shaping them.” He highlighted the country’s thriving AI startup ecosystem and the recent AI Impact Summit attended by over 100 nations.
Union minister Piyush Goyal (Commerce & Industry) stressed India’s readiness to scale exports and deepen manufacturing, while Ashwini Vaishnaw (Railways, I&B, Electronics & IT) positioned technology and infrastructure as twin engines of growth, especially in AI and digital trust. Jyotiraditya Scindia (Communications & North East Development) revealed India’s ambition to lead in 6G through the Bharat 6G Alliance and partnerships with over 30 countries.
Global voices added depth: former Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo called India’s development “self-sustaining” and strategically vital; ex-UK Chief of Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter asserted India deserves a seat at the great powers’ table; and former US Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez joined ambassadors from Norway, Germany and Sweden in discussions on geopolitical realignment, sustainability and defence preparedness.
Other speakers included veteran investor Ramesh Damani, World Gold Council CEO David Tait, Vianai Systems founder Dr Vishal Sikka, DeepTech Bharat Foundation co-founder Shashi Shekhar Vempati, defence experts Rajesh Kumar Singh, Sunil Ambekar, Patrick McGee, Tom Cooper and Adrian Fontanellaz, plus cultural and sporting icons Kangana Ranaut, Saina Nehwal, PR Sreejesh, Mohammed Shami, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mithali Raj, Anil Kapoor and Yami Gautam.
The summit was supported by Jio Financial Services (Presenting Partner), Phonepe and DS Group (Co-Presenting Partners), Pernod Ricard India and Kia Seltos (Powered By & Driven By), state governments of Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand (State Partners), and associate partners including NSE, M3M Foundation and Reliance Industries.
Broadcast live across News18 Network, CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz, the event reinforced India’s image as a confident democracy and emerging global power proving that when strength comes from within, the world can’t help but watch.
