People have got another long weekend due to a public holiday on October 2 on account of Gandhi Jayanti. The three-day offs — Weekends and Monday — have led to a spike in flight searches by 40 per cent.
“Majority of the travellers are planning a four-five days long family holiday,” according to a Moneycontrol report quoting Aloke Bajpai, co-founder & group CEO of ixigo, an online travel platform.
“We have seen a 44 per cent week-on-week increase in flight searches for the Gandhi Jayanti long weekend. The strong demand around this weekend is an indicator of growth in travel in the coming festive months of October and November,” he said.
The MC report also quoted EaseMyTrip co-founder Rikant Pittie saying that apart from long weekends, factors contributing to the rise in travel are the World Cup, Gandhi Jayanti, and festivals including Dussehra and Durga Puja.
Pittie said Durga Puja and Dussehra are also attracting travellers with twice as many flight searches for Kolkata this year. “Visitors are predominantly coming from cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Assam, and Odisha.”
During the October 2 long weekends, travel searches during Gandhi Jayanti have significantly increased for routes such as Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Himachal, Delhi Goa, and Delhi-Rajasthan, he said.
Some popular destinations for upcoming weekends are Dubai, Singapore, Goa, Jaipur, Pune, Varanasi, Coorg, and Maldives, he said.
“We’re witnessing a 15 per cent boost in spiritual retreats like Tirupathi, Varanasi, Puri, Mathura, and more. There’s a clear shift away from bustling cities towards the charm of smaller towns,” said Sripad Vaidya, co-founder of travel ticket search engine Confirmtkt, according to Moneycontrol.
Hotel Demand
Sudeep Jain, MD, SWA, IHG Hotels and Resorts, told Moneycontrol, “For the upcoming long weekend, we have seen an uptrend in the demand for leisure and tourist destinations such as Goa, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kerala, and Agra. These destinations have recorded average occupancy rates of 80 – 90 per cent. This is an increase of 15 percent from last year. The RevPar (revenue per available room) during this holiday period has grown by 30 percent at leisure destinations, while city hotels display a stagnant demand.”
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