Surge in travel expected during festive season starting Aug-Sept - Mint
During the month of August and September many parts of India have holidays for festivals like Rakhi, Janamashtmi, Independence Day, Onam and Ganesh Chaturthi, to name a few. This has triggered the desire to among people to take up travel and visit friends and family in addition to the pent up demand for leisure travel during these holidays.
Thomas Cook (India) and SOTC, for instance, stated that the upcoming festive season is seeing encouraging interest with demand upwards of 35% over last year. Thomas Cook has also launched Durga Pujo specials with deals such as book one-get one free and a free staycation.
"This has witnessed a strong uptick of over 50% in queries in merely a couple of days. While Indians typically travel home to be with family to celebrate festivals, this year pent-up demand appears to be driving appetite for destinations like Ladakh, Kashmir and Andamans, rather than home stations. Despite limited reopening of borders, Indians are keen to travel to Russia, Maldives, Mauritius, Egypt, and based on recent announcements on Covishield acceptance, to Switzerland and France too," said Rajeev Kale, president & country head – Holidays, MICE, Visa, Thomas Cook (India).
Meanwhile, SOTC India is offering select tours which also include special festive meals and a vegetarian menu to create the celebratory ambiance while on holiday.
"Demand is coming primarily from family and extended family who prefer our group escorted tours or ad-hoc group products; equally young working professionals/millennials. Our outdoor and experiential range – hiking, trekking, biking with stays in tents/a fort or a plantation villa amidst tea/coffee estates is seeing strong interest," said Daniel D'souza, president & country head, leisure, SOTC Travel.
These trends are in line with the recent LocalCircles survey which stated that as many as 28% citizens have expressed their intention to travel in the upcoming festive months of August-September. Only 5% of citizens surveyed however have booked their tickets and accommodation.
Booking.com said that some of the top booked Indian destinations for the month of August 2021 include leisurely destinations such as Lonavala, Leh, Manali, Udaipur, Jaipur and Goa, in addition to key metros like New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
"Besides domestic destinations, we are also seeing travel intent for international destinations pick up in the upcoming months.In addition to cleanliness, we are seeing an increase in travellers booking stays with more flexible cancellation policies due to the uncertain environment we currently face," said Ritu Mehrotra, regional manager, South Asia, Booking.com.
The survey received more than 18,000 responses from citizens residing in 311 districts of India. 68% respondents were men while 32% respondents were women. 42% respondents were from tier I, 29% from tier II and 29% respondents were from tier III, IV and rural districts.
The report stated that of those who plan to travel in August-September, 54% plan to visit family and friends, 26% will be travelling to holiday destinations, and 32% will be undertaking other kinds of travel.
"28% in absolute numbers could amount to 200-250 million adults travelling during this period as the survey findings included tier III, tier IV and rural districts thereby suggesting that this is not just the metro residents travelling," said Sachin Taparia, founder of LocalCircles.
This non-essential travel can accelerate the onset of the third wave and the government needs to start creating awareness about non-essential travel, the report said.
"Based on what was seen a year ago when cases surged after Rakhi in Delhi, Ganesh Puja in Mumbai and Onam in Kerala, it is likely that if this travel is not limited, we may see a surge again" said Taparia. "We are sensitizing the Central and State Government stakeholders and hope that they will urge citizens to minimise all non-essential travel or even implement restrictions especially where cases are rising."
Download the App to get 14 days of unlimited access to Mint Premium absolutely free!
Comments
Post a Comment