New Year may give travel industry a long-awaited boost

NEW DELHI: There’s a bright spark in the winter chill for the travel and tourism industry. After months of negative and stagnant growth in tourism figures, travel aggregator Goibibo’s latest survey shows things are beginning to look up in December with 35% respondents to its recent survey saying they are headed for a vacation to usher in the New Year. About 60% of the respondents who said they will travel during the winter holidays also said they will spend the year-end vacationing in the hills or by the beach, while over 70% picked family, spouse or their partner to holiday with. The upward trend in leisure travel has also been reflected in the assessment done by RateGain, a travel and hospitality software company for the travel industry. The company’s deep dive into room bookings between Weeks 50 and 52 of the current year show that while bookings were at a negative 22% in Week 50, and fell further to a (-)55% in Week 51, bookings have finally inched up with a 3% increase in the last week of the year. While Alleppey registered a 67% increase in room nights being booked over the last week, Bharatpur in Rajasthan saw a whopping 160% jump in bookings over the last week. Co-Founder and Group CEO, MakeMyTrip Limited, which includes MMT, goibibo and redBus, Rajesh Magow, said, “Pent-up wanderlust is real...Bookings for the winter festive holiday season on goibibo indicate an increase in travel to domestic leisure destinations, including Goa.” Magow added that the upward trend is expected to continue as the mass vaccination drive against coronavirus picks up pace