Weekend and festival travel picks up pace

Weekend and festival travel picks up pace

Tourism Experts Bullish On Footfalls As Vacationers Head To Favourite Getaways

After a lull of more than a year, people have begun travelling for leisure during extended weeking holidays includingfor vinayaka Chaturthi and Puja. The boost is also because companies are switching from work from home to work from offices.

Booking trends show Chennai, Kodaikanal, Ooty, Yercaud, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Puducherry, Goa, Jaipur and Srinagar are the destinations searched or booked in September and November, as per data from online portals. Travel agents too are reporting a similar trend.

Nishant Pitti, CEO and co-founder of EaseMyTrip, said that compared to August 2021, there was a jump of almost 63% for the long weekend of Vinayaka Chaturthi on September 10-12, 2021 in terms of forward air bookings. “Earlier, we noticed a jump of 54% for the long weekend of Janmashtami...”

A strong vaccination drive and the recent decision on RT-PCR exemption are playing a crucial role in improving the travel sentiment. “Our booking trends reveal destinations such as Goa, Jaipur, Leh, and Srinagar have recorded huge growth in passenger volumes flying out of metro cities.”

Ritu Mehrotra, regional manager (South Asia) at Booking.com, said that with more Indians getting vaccinated and ease in travel restrictions, travel intent was being converted into bookings. “... As per data from our platform, some of the top booked destination in South India by Indian travellers from September to November 2021 include Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pondicherry. We are also seeing intent for international travel pick up with France, Uk ,Canada, Maldives and Switzerland being top searched destinations from September to November 2021."

In the post-pandemic world, there is an increased emphasis by travellers on health, safety and flexibility while booking accommodation. “When it comes to accommodation, besides hotels which is one of the top preferred accommodation choices by travellers, alternative accommodations such as resort, guesthouse, homestay and apartments are also preferred,” she added.

M K Ajith Kumar of Asia Pacific Travels said many people prefer destinations that can be reached by a long drive because families do not want to mingle with people on public transport. Bengaluru, Puducherry, and Yercaud are popular.

T Sundar, who plans to travel to Bengaluru next week, said, “I have been stuck at home for more than a year. I wanted to take a break.”

People are also spending money to experience the best during travel. Nishant Pitti said, “More business class tickets signifies that travellers are now spending more on travel as well. Bookings for 4 and 5-star properties have almost doubled as travellers prefer high-end hotels owing to safety issues. The average stay duration has also gone up from 3.2 days to 4.7 days.”