Tourists in India prefer the cooler climates of the hills over the warmth of the sea beaches, according to a study by Google.

"Hill stations like Manali, Shimla, Ooty and Mahabaleswar are clearly more popular on Google search than sea beaches," Kiran Mani, Head of Vertical Sales of Google India, told PTI from the US today.

According to a report by the Internet giant on online travel trends, Manali emerged as the top searched hill station on Google, even as the trend of retreating to weekend getaways picked up.

However, Goa remained the top searched places among leisure travellers.

Indians are also looking for short-haul destinations outside India.

Dubai is the most popular international destination, followed by Bangkok, Singapore, Mauritius and Switzerland, the report said.

Among business travellers, top metros like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore are the most preferred cities.

Search queries on travel has grown by 50 per cent in the last 12 months, according to the study by Google.

"Travel queries peak in holiday seasons of May/June and then again in December. Surprisingly, on-line searches from non-metro cities has grown by 30 per cent. Having 81 million Internet users in the country, searches on Google is the best form of consumer research," Mani said.

More than half of travel queries on Google were about hotels and accommodation, followed by air travel.

"54.43 per cent of the people search for hotels, while 27.45 per cent of them search for air travel options. Only 7.42 per cent of the searches are about bus and railways," he said.

However, the bulk of hotel traffic is non-brand as less than 10 per cent queries relate to hotel brands.

"But the scope for both budget and star hotels will grow. Searches on budget hotels has increased by four times in the last two years, while the interest in five-star hotels has increased by six times during the same period," the official said.

Among priced-based searches on hotels, most of the netizens look for rooms costing Rs 3,000 per night.

On-line travel agencies continue to dominate, but the airlines are also growing fast, he said.