Global ride-sharing giant Uber today released travel data from its India-registered users, providing insight into global travel trends of Indians.
Uber's data shows a sharp increase in the number of Indians using the ride-sharing app abroad in 2023, with the number of international travelers trailing only Americans.
During the ongoing summer travel season, Indians are expected to surpass previous years' records, says the taxi aggregator.
The number of Indians travelling abroad has increased significantly over the past two years, with nearly a million of them using Uber abroad last year. According to the data, Indians travelled to nearly 1,000 cities in 68 countries during the year. While the number of cities they explored increased significantly, most of the countries where Uber was used remained the same – the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Summer holidays seem to be the most popular time for Indians to travel abroad, as schools and colleges go on vacation and families get to spend more time together. The most popular month for traveling abroad in 2023 was May, compared to June in 2022.
“Indians have broken all travel records in the last few years and it is heartwarming to see how Uber continues to be their trusted partner for the last mile of these journeys. Be it the familiarity of landing at an airport in a new city or the safety of late night rides, it is a huge vote of confidence for us when Indians book an Uber for their international trips,” said Prabhjeet Singh, President, Uber India and South Asia.
Abroad, Indians travelled on average 25% longer distances with Uber than in India and tried no fewer than 21 different products in different countries, including Comfort Electric, a premium electric vehicle, Multimodal Transit – an option that includes public transport such as trains – and the most widely used option, UberX.
Many of the countries Indians traveled to operated peer-to-peer ride-sharing schemes where people could use their personal vehicles for Uber rides, supporting the gig economy. “This perhaps explains a number of luxury vehicle rides for Indians on overseas trips in 2023, including Porsche Cayenne, Jaguar F PACE, Range Rover Sport, Mercedes S450, BMW 740i M Sport and Lincoln Navigator,” the report said.
“Apart from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, Indians were also offered some premium electric vehicles while booking Uber rides abroad. These include: Jaguar I PACE Audi e-tron Sportback Mercedes EQE 500 Ford F150 Lightning,” it added.
