As Covid Wave Ebbs, Indians Are Packing Bags For Leisure Trips – Economic Times

In bits and spurts, on long weekends and special occasions, leisure travel is coming back following a decline in daily Covid cases in the country and in key states.

For instance, the weekend preceding February 14 saw an encouraging week-on-week growth in bookings, industry insiders said.

Anil Chadha, divisional chief executive at ITC Hotels said Welcomhotel Shimla, Welcomhotel Chail, Welcomhotel Mussoorie , Welcomhotel Pahalgam have been receiving lots of tourists who sought short or long breaks or even a ‘Valentine vacation.’ ITC Grand Bharat, ITC Grand Goa, ITC Rajputana and ITC Mughal are also seeing good footfalls, he said.

“The sentiment this week is positive which is indeed good for the industry. Clearly, the demand for hyperlocal and enriching experiences is on the rise. Travellers from different cities in India who are at motorable distances are checking in as they wish to take a break away from their homes to a new location,” he added.

Rajeev Kale, president and country head, holidays, MICE and visa at Thomas Cook India said consumer sentiment is on the upswing on the back of sustained improvement in data (on vaccine coverage and reduced infections) reopening of schools and the announcement on waiving the mandatory quarantine on international return. “We saw early signs of travel interest, albeit limited, in late January and are now witnessing a definitive uptick with requests for the long /extended weekends of valentine’s day, Holi and Maha Shivratri primarily for domestic and short haul destinations,” he said. Kale said what is also noteworthy is the return of interest for long haul destinations and that the company has been receiving not just queries, but also bookings for school vacations for the upcoming spring breaks and the longer summer season starting at the end of April. “The good news is that the UK and Europe (Switzerland and France) are back on the traveller radar given positive updates on relaxation of entry exit and health protocols while the USA is seeing a demand from customers holding valid visas,” he said.

RateGain, provider of revenue management, distribution and digital marketing solutions to hotel chains said weekly bookings were up by almost 150% last week when compared to the end of January and over 90% of the demand was for leisure. “We are witnessing an uptick in destinations such as Dehradun, Udaipur, Shimla as well as Goa. We can see that bookings are increasing considerably for next two to three weeks and the booking windows continue to remain short where majority of the bookings are coming a week before travel,” a spokesperson said.

Yatra said it witnessed a spike in the number of booking inquiries for the Valentine’s day weekend with people opting to travel to destinations such as Goa, Andamans, and Himachal Pradesh and spanning accomodation options like chalets, villas, boathouses, premium resorts, and hotels. Rikant Pittie, co-founder at EaseMyTrip said the platform has seen a jump of around 15% for February and travellers are keen on heading to the hills.

Kavinder Singh, MD and CEO at Mahindra Holidays & Resorts said quarter four has always been a good quarter for the chain and he is optimistic about the demand for leisure travel which will lead the recovery of the sector in February and March. Mahindra Holidays & Resorts experienced quarter three occupancies of 80% which was around pre pandemic levels.

Radisson Hotel Group has recorded a comparatively softer business impact with a less sharp decline in bookings this time around unlike the previous two waves, Zubin Saxena, MD and VP, operations for South Asia said. “We expect a faster return to business at the end of this month. The general sentiment is more positive this time around,” he added.

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