Holi Vibes Are In The Air! Cheer For Domestic Travel! Goa Emerges The Most Booked Destination, Followed by Mumbai, Delhi, And Hill stations!

The joyful Holi vibes are in the air! American Express shared the information in the recently released “Global Travel Trends Report” that Indian travelers are most keen to plan future travel.

Not only do Indians daydream about their travel plans, but there are obviously a large number of tourists coming to enjoy the festive Holi weekend.

Not only in metropolitan cities but also second-and third-tier cities have witnessed a surge in travel demand during the Holi weekend, as people want to visit their hometowns and catch up with their loved ones.

Holi Vibes Are In The Air!

During the long Holi weekend, hotels in hill stations such as Nainital, Kasauli, Lansdowne, Mussoorie, Shimla, and nature-centric destinations (such as Jim Corbett) are almost completely booked.

Obviously, domestic travel is preferred, because now holiday celebrations have been muted and people don’t want to stay at home on festive occasions and long weekends.

However, RateGain found that due to the following factors, the booking volume has dropped to about 18%:

• Fiscal year-end: Because it is the end of the fiscal year, people are busy with their closings.
• Exams: Another factor is that due to exams the families are not traveling.
• COVID-19: The coronavirus cases have been increased, so people are trying to avoid traveling.
• Although bookings in places such as Bharuch (139%), Mashobra (225%), and Thiruvananthapuram (100%) have surged, RateGain claims that bookings in cities such as Pondicherry, Lucknow, Delhi-NCR, and Pune have dropped sharply.

The Long Holi Weekend: Which Indian cities have seen an increase in the number of tourists?

Cleartrip vice president Rajiv Subramanian said: “Due to Holi/Good Friday, the trend of “going back home” is quite large. This can be seen in sectors such as Bagdogra, Guwahati, and Patna because of the high volume of last-minute bookings.

At the same time, routes from major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad to Goa are still featured in popular routes.

Srinagar is another airport that is attracting attention. The route between Mumbai-Srinagar and Delhi-Srinagar is among the top 10 routes.

As the summer vacation approaches, assuming that the uncertainty of current demand gradually tapers out, demand is expected to grow strongly.

Holi Weekend Travel Trends: What does the increase in demand for ticketing platforms mean?

The key stakeholders in the tourism industry and expressed their views on emerging tourism trends on the long-term Holi weekend and Good Friday weekend.

Sripad Vaidya, Co-founder, and COO of Confirmtkt said: Although the ticketing platform adds 20,000 bookings per day as a whole, on our platform, we have witnessed a total of 650 bookings per day for the upcoming Holi (long weekend).

Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore are some reserved places because people plan to move back to their hometowns (second and third-tier cities), and places like Goa, Mathura-Vrindavan, and Pushkar, are the most popular places to celebrate Holi.

Holi Weekend Travel Trends: Which is a leisure destination?

Booking.com shared more information on top domestic destinations and accommodation types booked by Indian tourists from March 27, 2021, to April 4, 2021, to celebrate Holi and Easter holidays.

Booking.com shows that Goa has become the most booked destination, followed by Jaipur, Delhi, Rishikesh, and Mumbai for the same period.

In addition to booking hotels, most travelers also choose resorts, guest houses, and family accommodation. Booking.com also launched “Early 2021 offers” for specific hotels. According to the latest press release from Booking.com, this means travelers can save 20% or more, according to Booking.com’s latest press release.

Top-selling accommodation types for Indian travelers

According to the booking data provided by Booking.com, the list of the top 5 accommodations for the Holi Festival and Easter weekend is as follows.

• Resort
• Hotel
• Guest House
• Homestay
• Hostel

At the same time, American Express recently released a comprehensive Global Travel Trends Report, which provides unique insights into the sentiments of travelers after lockdown and a year after the pandemic began. The report covers 7 countries including India.

Holi Weekend Travel Trends: To stimulate travel demand, Indians are keen to plan future travel

According to Manoj Adlakha, CEO and Senior Vice President of American Express Banking Corp: Amex Trendex shows pent-up travel demand and behavior, which is somewhat unique in the Indian market, with 91% of Indian respondents supporting the choice locals are interested in travel.

The community shows that they understand the impact of the pandemic on tourism. Indians are most keen to plan future travel.

It is worth noting that Indian American Express Banking Corp. has remodeled its Delhi airport lounge to increase the value of its platinum card product holders and to ensure first-class access rights as well as its cardmembers.

Although tourism trends and growth in demand are almost optimistic, after a year of lockdown, India’s tourism and hotel industry has experienced the most depressing period.

Holi Travel Trend: For travel and tourism, everything is still not good

At the recently concluded BITB conference, more than 150 representatives and major stakeholders from the tourism industry participated in the conference. The HAI (Hotel Association of India) emphasized the need to make the tourism industry more accessible, viable, and sustainable to get everyone back on the track of recovery.

HAI emphasized that the private sector and state governments must work together to revitalize the domestic tourism industry, and emphasized the need to take key measures to promote tourism through comprehensive taxation policies, additional tax relief, and provide institutions access with ways to use working capital, which will delay loan repayments for all segments, and improve liquidity, and so on.

As Holi and Good Friday weekends indicate a marked increase in domestic travel, the silver lining is that Indian travelers are now keen to support the local community. May the tribe of these travelers continue to grow responsibly!