(1) After more than two years of restrictions, the hospitality industry is now cautiously hopeful. Tourism constituted a significant portion of India's GDP and generated around 100 million jobs in 2019. But the sector was severely hit in India — like in other countries — in the past two years.
(2) Indians are now travelling with a vengeance — revenge travel, as the phenomenon is called. And many, experts say, now prefer to travel within the country instead of flying to more expensive destinations abroad. The industry is also benefitting from new trends borne of the pandemic such as micro-holidays and workcations.
(3) According to a survey, 51 percent of Indian travellers believed that international travel remained an important means of expanding their horizons and connecting with other cultures. Over two years, the survey said, Indian travellers are now dreaming about their next international trip and more than 70 percent of Indians are excited about being able to travel internationally.
(4) There has also been an increase in the number of students going abroad to study. The increasing desire to study overseas is credited to the availability of short-duration courses of two-to-three-year duration. This has become more pronounced because of growing aspirations and affordability among the middle-class students from Tier II and Tier III cities.
Read the following passage carefully and answer the following questions, based on the above passage:
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-15 07:10 · grounding stimulus
Model Answer
(i) …just as people who were deprived of dining out for a long time rush to restaurants in large numbers to make up for the lost experience, Indians, after two years of travel restrictions, began travelling eagerly and in large numbers to compensate for the time lost.
(ii) The statement is a fact because it is an objective detail.
(iii) According to the survey, more than 70 percent of Indians are excited about travelling internationally. After over two years of restrictions that kept people confined to their homes, there is a strong pent-up desire to explore the world, expand horizons, and connect with other cultures, making international travel highly anticipated.
(iv) Education — In 2019, 5.8 lakh Indians travelled abroad for education, which rose to 6.5 lakh in 2022.
(v) Workcations is reflected in the table. The number of Indians travelling abroad for residency (72.5 L in 2022) and visit (40.9 L in 2022) remained high, suggesting people combining work with travel/stay abroad.
(Accept: any reasonable link to the data.)
(vi) In both 2019 (89.5 L) and 2022 (72.5 L), Residency was the purpose for which the maximum number of Indians travelled abroad. Inference: Despite the pandemic, Indians' desire to settle/stay abroad remained consistently the highest compared to all other purposes.
(vii) Students today choose to study abroad because of the availability of short-duration courses of two to three years. Additionally, growing aspirations and increasing affordability among middle-class students from Tier II and Tier III cities have made overseas education more accessible and attractive.
(viii) C — Indians are excited about being able to travel internationally.
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Explanation
- (i) The analogy must explain why the comparison holds — i.e., both involve making up for a forced deprivation. Don't just restate the analogy.
- (ii) A fact = verifiable/objective detail. An opinion = subjective. Numbers and statistics = facts.
- (iii) Use para 3: 70%+ excited, two years of restrictions = justification. Stay within ~40 words.
- (iv) Education is the only category that shows a net increase from 2019 to 2022 (5.8L → 6.5L). All others dropped.
- (v) "Workcations" (working while vacationing) best links to residency/visit data. Examiners accept reasonable justification.
- (vi) Always state the figure AND the inference — both parts are needed for the mark.
- (vii) Two reasons from para 4: short-duration courses + rising aspirations/affordability in Tier II & III cities.
- (viii) Option C directly matches the survey's key finding (70%+ excited). Option A is only 51%, B is not from the survey, D is irrelevant.