Surge in travel expected during festive season starting Aug-Sept

Despite an impending third wave in the country, Indians are planning to travel either to meet their friends/family or take a much-needed break, said travel operators as well as recent survey conducted by community social media platform LocalCircles. 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. 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.