METHODOLOGY
THE QUESTIONNAIRE The results of our survey emerged from the responses we received to a questionnaire that we put out in our December 2006 issue. There was only one questionnaire per issue but we made it easier for more people- readers old and young, subscribers or otherwise – to participate, by making the same questionnaire available online (at www.outlooktravller.com and www.outlookindia.com) and re-publishing it in the December issues of Outlook as well.
THE RESPONSES We gave you till January 5, 2007 to send in your responses. We received 1335 paper responses 185 online responses. Then we set a bunch of data-entry people to work, who over the next two weeks trawled through the sheets and stared themselves cross-eyed at the online forms.
THE RESULTS We sat done to make sense of what seemed like just so many names and numbers. To lend continuity to our surveys, we based our questionnaire on the results of last year’s survey. The earlier survey had embraced 12 categories: winter destinations, cities, heritage centres, adventure destinations (for river rafting, trekking, water sports and air adventure), hotels (Luxury, mid-range and budget), domestic airlines, honeymoon destinations (domestic and abroad) and, finally, foreign destinations. This year saw two additional elements: states as a new category, and the division of airlines into full-service and low-cost carriers. In each category, we listed the top contenders for the post of winner based on the top rankers in last year’s survey. We asked you to pick what you thought best in each category, under various criteria (Survey, Faculties, Value for Money, etc). We left one sub-category (Budget Hotels) unprompted, asking you to name what you thought best. We then calculated the percentage of votes the overall winner for each category, based on the most number of votes across the various criteria.
BETTER IDEAS Apart from the pool of choices that we presented you with, we also asked you to tell us if you had a better idea. Many of you thought you did: these votes did not overturn the top raking, but did present us with a fair idea of where else you thought the ‘Best of Travel’ is to be found.
OUR TAKE Once the results were in, course we couldn’t resist a little editorialising. You’ll find a category-by-category analysis accompanying the results along with a few pithy opinions from our in-house travel expert Marco Polo as well as some well- known ‘poll pundits’ we invited to have their say.
THE WINNERS at a glance.
1. WINTER DESTINATIONS Goa
2. SUMMER DESTINATIONS Ooty
3. NATIONAL PARKS Corbett
4. BEACHES Goa
5. HILL STATIONS Ooty
6. CITIES Mumbai
7. STATES Goa
8. HERITAGE DESTINATIONS Udaipur
9. ADVENTURE
RIVER RAFTING Rishikesh
TREKKING Ladakh
WATER SPORTS Goa
AIR ADVENTURE Manali
10. HOTELS
LUXURY Taj Mumbai
MID-RANGE Trident Hilton
BUDGET State-run properties
11. DOMESTIC AIRLINES
FULL-SERVICE Jet Airways
LOW-COST Air Deccan
12. HONEYMOON DESTINATIONS
DOMESTIC Goa
FOREIGN Switzerland
13. FOREIGN DESTINATIONS Paris