Indians are ditching the plain holiday for a Hobbiday, the big travel trend this year

In January every year, the Indian service class gets a list in their mail: the holidays. 'Holidays 2024' is the first email that I really looked forward to receiving this year, ngl. This list came with 15 long weekends; and when a holiday falls on a Thursday or a Tuesday, you know what to do. These 15 long weekends will perhaps translate to 8-10 short trips, and if your work too takes a toll on your other, real life, you would want to leave the office for biannual long vacations. But are holidays just about vegetating on a beach somewhere or walking around the Mall Road in the hills anymore? Post-Covid, what people like to do on holidays has also changed. Those days of being stuck at home, where the crematorium was a cough away, ensured we made time for better things. We were making dalgona coffee and baking banana bread, and if you survived that epidemic, you wanted to get in touch with the lost hobbies of singing, dancing, painting, cooking, et al (and documenting it all on Reels, of course). Well. It's 2024. Work From Home or the Hills is a thing of the past. Our hobbies have taken a back seat. So, what can you fall back on? Holidays, of course. And nothing like clubbing a hobby and a holiday together, no? Make way for Hobbiday. What is Hobbiday? The big trend in 2024 travel is Hobbiday. A portmanteau of the words 'hobby' and 'holiday', for the holidays that you don't want to be plain holidays. So, think those pottery lessons that you took as a kid and then forgot about in the mad race between work and home? A hobbiday is just the answer. The pandemic-driven YOLO has seeped into the travel industry too. In 2024, travel is no longer about just visiting a place. After all, how much sight-seeing can you do if your trip is centred on one city; and spans, say, two weeks? Travel has now become about incorporating experiences too. Experience scores one over plain travel Sajin Nawshad, director, Akbar Travels Pvt Ltd, spoke to India Today about the shifts he is noticing in travellers, especially since Covid. "As modern travellers evolve, the traditional sightseeing routine for two weeks has given way to a growing sense of holiday fatigue. People crave more than just passive observation; they seek active engagement. Hence, the rising demand for holidays centred around personal hobbies," says Nawshad. Travellers don't mind paying a steep amount for these customised holidays either, says Nawshad, "Whether it's the thrill of driving experiences or other niche interests, these tailored vacations cater to individual preferences, creating a more fulfilling and rejuvenating experience. This trend has notably gained momentum since the onset of the Covid era, emphasising a desire for meaningful and personally enriching escapes."