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Indians jet set to global holidays for Aug long weekend

A surge in direct flights to international spots has piqued travellers' interest

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Come long weekend and travellers are seen making plans to head out to the closest beach destination or a hill station. But, this August, most travellers are willing to go further and even to international destinations due to ample opportunities for long weekends and holidays. The first and last weeks have long weekends, but the biggest driver is the nine-day holiday possibility between the 12th and 20th where seven days are holidays. With the option of a long holiday that allows office-goers to take only two days off, they are ready to spend more to make August their official holiday month and eyeing short-haul trips to global destinations.

“There is a definite spike in the international holiday package sales this year owing to the long weekend. Their clear preferences are Thailand, Singapore, Dubai and Sri Lanka. We are expecting about 10% increase in international flight sales,” says Varun Gupta, CEO Goomo, an omnichannel travel tech start-up.

The other destinations which are in demand are some of those that provide visa on arrivals like Mauritius, Maldives, Bhutan and Cambodia. Newer holiday destinations like Japan and South Korea are also generating interest. European destinations like France, Switzerland, Austria, Spain and Greece are also popular amongst those are ready to long haul for the long weekend for the month.

“The trend of Indian preferring international destinations has been going up. But this year, it will be 10-15% higher than last year due to the holidays. Apart from the usual preference to Thailand, Singapore and Dubai, there is a lot of interest in Seychelles as a direct flight from Mumbai reduced the travel time to four hours,” informs Karan Anand, head-relationships at Cox & Kings.

Most of the travellers who are looking forward to international holidays are from the top metros. Yet, there is a rising number of globetrotters from Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Baroda, Guwahati, Goa, Hyderabad and Lucknow. The increased number of direct flights to international destinations have piqued the interest of travellers to upgrade their domestic travel plans to go international.

In addition to many Indian holidays, August is also the month of holidays, carnivals and Medieval fairs across Europe. The opportunity to take part in them is yet another driver. August is also the month of fests such as La Tomatina in Spain, Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, Notting Hill Carnival in London, Salzburg Festival in Austria, Berlin Beer Festival in Germany. Many Indian travellers look forward to attending these carnivals and even combine two or three European destinations together to enjoy these cultural show-offs to the fullest,” says Anand.

Japan has a three-day rock festival called Summer Sonic in August. Nevada erects a temporary city in the Black Rock Desert for its Burning Man art festival attracting artists from all over the world. Apart from these, Argentina has a Tango festival and Sri Lankan city’s cultural capital Kandy has a Festival of Tooth called Esala Perahera in the month of August. Due to the favourable intervention of stars and dates, looks like Indian travellers can experience the novelty of international festivals as well.

...& ANALYSIS

  • A surge in direct flights to international spots has piqued travellers’ interest
     
  • Travellers prefer stops with visa-on-arrival, Europe for Medieval fairs
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