Many packing bags for travel as Covid-19 subsides

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There is a strong rebound in travel this festival season with the decline in the number of Covid-19 cases and the easing of lockdown restrictions. Many people are planning trips to tourist spots during the break. While some are heading towards beaches and hill stations, etc., others are planning a short visit to their native places.

Top destinations

The top destinations this festival season include beaches in Goa, Pondicherry, Digha, and hill stations such as Ooty and Mahabaleshwar. Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh also figure among the most preferred places.

And the spurt in trips plan has brought a sigh of relief to the travel companies as the dark phase they witnessed last year due to coronavirus, seems likely to subside.

Travel companies and hospitality chains have said that they are witnessing a 50-70% spike in bookings, owing to upcoming festivals such as Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja and Diwali.

Online bookings surge

Travel company SOTC India said the demand this festive season– October-November– has gone up by a whopping 500% compared to the previous year.

Thomas Cook India saw festive bookings for Durga Puja and Diwali go up by 600% in July from the previous month. Thomas Cook India country head and president Rajeev Kale said the duration of stay has also gone up and the average international trip now stands between 10-15 days while a domestic one is between 5-7 days.

MakeMyTrip said that it has seen a five-fold increase in travel bookings in the current month as compared to the same period last year. Vipul Prakash, COO, MakeMyTrip, said that there has been a massive seven-fold hike in bookings for family holidays with more than two people. He also added that bookings for near-term leisure trips are up by 20%, while festival trips jumped by 35%.

Online booking agent Yatra has seen a 15-20% hike in enquiries and said people are now preferring less commercialised spots like cottages, tents, homestays over conventional tourist spots.

Hotel bookings up

Bookings for hotels have also seen a significant increase. As per Accor India and South Asia’s VP Kerrie Hannaford, there has been a significant surge in hotel bookings this festive season, across all the brands that it manages. MRS Hotels since its reopening last month has seen bookings go up by 40% for August-September as compared to the same period last year. MRS manages hotels like Mary Budden Estate in Binsar, Suryagarh Jaisalmer and Narendra Bhawan Bikaner.

JLL South Asia’s MD Jaideep Dang said the average room rates (ARR) of most leisure destinations are turning out to be bestsellers and are much better now as compared to the same time last year.

Dang further said that some families and senior citizens are opting for luxury homestays and boutique hotels over hills and beaches and this has brought in a lot of revenue for places like Chandigarh and Jaipur.

Fairmont Jaipur, which is a popular weekend getaway has seen bookings surge by 20% as compared to last year. This time people from nearby Gujarat have also come in addition to their regular patrons from Delhi-NCR.