The festival of colours is here, and many are eager to travel on this occasion. Festivity inspired wanderlust has increased activity in the tourism sector. According to a report by Business Standard, people’s zeal for travelling has pushed up airfares considerably. The rise has been measured in terms of the rise in demand during Holi Week (March 6-12), compared to the same time in February this year. The month-on-month increase in fares is as high as 50 percent on some domestic routes.
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A one-way ticket from Mumbai to Goa on any day between February 6-12 was Rs 2,583 on average. For the same dates this month, the average fare stands at Rs 3,883. Similarly, the mean ticket cost from Pune to Delhi has gone up from Rs 4,340 in February to Rs 5,617 in March.
The price hike is not just propelled by those looking for leisure trips within India, though. There has been a surge in demand for short-haul spots such as Singapore and Dubai as well.
Travel firms such as Ixigo and Thomas Cook have reported a significant upward trend in advance booking. The publication said that Ixigo, an artificial intelligence-based online travel portal, has noted a 30 percent increase in advance bookings for Holi week. Travel agency Thomas Cook has seen a 15-20 percent jump for the same. These numbers are calculated taking pre-pandemic levels as the base. In other words, they highlight that people’s urge to travel is higher than it was before COVID-19 disrupted holiday plans.
Aloke Bajpai, the co-founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Ixigo told the media portal that “Jaipur, Goa, Kashmir, Dubai, and Singapore are some of the most booked and searched destinations for the Holi week.” Bajpai said that the average airfares across popular routes for travel had gone up by 10-15 per cent month-on-month for this particular time span.
The boost in demand is in line with the trend noticed during every festive period. During the Diwali season, Ixigo had seen the average airfares jump by 20-30 percent on favoured metro routes. The price jump was steeper still on routes that had fewer flight frequencies. There, the rise had been between 40-45 percent.
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