A trip for two nights and three days is fast becoming a norm for people now -- a shift from long holidays taken 10 years ago.
With the long weekend round the corner, thanks to Eid, families and couples are undertaking short trips or budget trips to relax and take a break from otherwise mundane, hectic life.
Many travel sites and firms are seeing a surge in purchases and inquiries by people for short vacations. "Working professionals or home makers, everyone deserves a break. Weekend Getaways therefore become the perfect 'power-nap' in-between hectic, stressful, work lives. Fortunately, more and more people are waking up to the benefits of short breaks and extended weekends, only to return to work, rejuvenated and refreshed," says Samyukth Sridharan, chief operating officer, Cleartrip.
In India, the whole travel concept has undertaken a change in the past five years. Earlier, people were only keen on taking up long holidays for a week or fortnight and the holidays were restricted to either one or two in a year. "The trend now has changed. People want to take more breaks and hence they utilize these long weekends," says Saurabh Srivastava, vice president, marketing and product strategy, Ixigo.com.
While Cleartrip says that there is a 65% surge in people taking up weekend travel, Ixigo has seen a 40% jump in those inquiring about short trips.
Take the case of Deepak Shetty, who is all set to go to Mumbai during the coming long weekend. "My wife has not seen Mumbai and so we decided to go and have a blast in the city of dreams. We did not want to spend this long weekend sitting at home," says Shetty.
Even technology has played a huge role as people now have more information about places. "People today are keen to travel and explore different places and hence they want to take more breaks in a year. Anyway, today families have lesser time for each other and hence short holidays are increasing," says Ashwin Narayanan, chief operating officer, Travel Tours Group.
Srivastava feels that there is a certain level of peer pressure that comes into play. "When you see your friends posting their holiday pictures with family, there is a psychological pressure that is there."
"There are more than 15 long weekends this year and more and more people are preferring to take short breaks from work rather than 1 or 2 long breaks this year," says Rohit Khetrapal, co-founder, findmystay.com.
Where are people travelling?
% Split
Hill Station 40%
Beach 23%
Heritage 15%
Pilgrimage 10%
Urban Escape 7%
Adventure 5%
Source: Cleartrip
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