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Long weekend ahead sees surge in travel bookings

Travel portals and hotels are seeing several times rise in bookings than the regular weekends as people take vacation to nearby locations

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It's time to head to beaches and forests, away from the hustle-bustle of the city life.

With A four-day long Mahavir Jayanti-Easter weekend beginning today and followed by another long weekend on April 14 on account of Ambedkar Jayanti, many are busy making travel plans.

Vishal Suri, CEO, tour operating, Kuoni India, said, "Given the increased stress levels and work pressure, working professionals often seek a quick getaway to relax and rejuvenate."

Airlines giving out discounts and special offers in April, which is a lean season, is also fuelling the plans.

Mohit Gupta – head, online business, MakeMyTrip.com, said, "Hectic lifestyles and conflicting schedules have led to weekend travel picking up in a big way. It allows the whole family, or working couples to take a short trip without the hassle of coordinating their leave."

Yogendra Vasupal, founder and CEO, Stayzilla.com, an online accommodation booking portal, said, "During any long weekend compared to a regular weekend, we see at least 2x increase in bookings. From metros and Tier I cities, the preferences are usually for a distance within 300 km, while from Tier II the preference is for within 150 km. For this week, we have seen a 70% surge in bookings. We expect last minute bookings to go up by 90% this week."

Taking a number of small vacations in a year is the norms for the today's Indian tourists. Vasupal said that most of these vacations are opted by young people who either travel in a group of friends or as a couple.

He said long weekends with Hindu religious festivals such as Mahashivratri, Holi and Diwali usually see lesser amount of travels compared to long weekends with non-Hindu festivals.

Neelu Singh, COO, Ezeego1.com, an online travel portal, said, "A long list of extended weekends, coupled with higher disposable incomes and innumerable destination options have made weekend getaways quite the norm amongst Indian travellers. This year, 30-35% of the traffic on our website was for weekend getaways alone, with Goa, Kerala and Ladakh getting the maximum bookings. In fact, over 20% of our domestic bookings during the first quarter of this year have been for the long weekends."

Singh said that Sikkim and Andaman are fast emerging as offbeat weekend getaways and the bookings for these destinations have been growing steadily since the past couple of years.

Karan Anand -- head, relationships, Cox & Kings, said, "Indians prefer travelling on holiday during long weekends, and this is what we witnessed this weekend as well. We at Cox & Kings have seen an approximately 30% growth in weekend travel this year."

The online travel portal, Goibibo.com, has recorded a 5x growth over last year and 42% of its bookings have come through mobile app. With the online bookings continue to show an upward trend, Goibibo is looking at an expected 3x growth this year, on the back of increased smartphone and mobile penetration, discounts announced by airlines and the overall economy looking up.

Sanjay Bhasin, CEO, Goibibo.com, said, "Last year saw about 17 long weekends, while this year has about 13-14. This has increased not only domestic but international long weekend travel too. There is always a spurt in bookings when there is an extended weekend. On weekends the travel to leisure destinations picks up to 2-3x on Goibibo.com.

But if there is a long weekend with a Friday or Monday, then it rises to even 4x and the average room nights booked increases from 1.8 on a normal weekend to 2.61 in case of an extended weekend. National Holidays like January 26, our numbers jump 2x-3x from a normal weekend as all shops and establishments across the country are closed compulsorily. Goibibo.com recorded a 12x increase in bookings on January 26 weekend gone by."

For the Easter weekend travel, MakeMyTrip has seen a huge spike in flight and hotel bookings, and both are being driven through mobile devices.

Gupta said, "For Hotels, travellers continue to favour last-minute booking, with the highest number of bookings taking place up to two days before travel. Most travellers are heading to the hills – bookings to Ooty, Nainital, Lansdowne and Corbett have more than doubled. Travellers mobile app bookings contributed to over 45% of all hotel-bookings for this period. In flights bookings, there is over 150% growth in mobile bookings, driving a 40%+ overall yoy growth. Nearly 16% of mobile bookings for the upcoming long weekend are from Jaipur, Indore, Guwahati, Patna, Srinagar and Coimbatore, up from 2% cumulative share last year."

According to a report by travel network company Via.com, travellers booking buses from mobile phones increases 55%, particularly during long weekends. Over last year, number of bus booking has increased over 160% during the Easter weekend this year. The company has also seen nearly 15-20% increase in number of flights and bus bookings during this weekend compared to the Holi weekend in March this year, due to the special air fare offers announced by GoAir and Air Costa.

Indian travellers' choice of locations during the Easter weekend is not limited to places such as Goa and Kerala owing to their spiritual relevance. While there is a segment of people who prefer to drive down to locations closer home, say, for people staying in Mumbai may travel to Lonavala, Khandala, Mahabaleshwar and Goa among others, there are others who travel to domestic destinations such as Kerala, Andamans, Goa, Kashmir, Shimla, Bhutan, Darjeeling as well.

Another online travel portal Wego India's managing director Jackson Fernandez, said, "More travellers searched for flights, for this upcoming long weekend, than hotels, the numbers for which doubled over the last ten days.

Destinations searched were on the most part short-haul, which makes sense when you only have a short break. For instance, from Bangalore the most popular selections were Jaipur and New Delhi, for New Delhi, Goa and Mumbai were the top two, while travellers from Mumbai chose Goa, Lucknow, and New Delhi."

The extended Easter weekend is one of the longest weekends for many Indian travellers this year. Indian travellers are becoming savvy 'mini vacationers', planning multiple getaways over extended long-weekends , than one annual welcome break . This Easter weekend, Flight Shop has seen a demand for short-haul beach vacations to destinations like Maldives and Sri Lanka. The relaxed visa norms make these locations a favourite among last-minute travel planners. Domestic holidays have also seen greater demand this weekend.

There is also a segment that travels overseas and most of them plan their vacation well in advance. While they may prefer short tailor-made travel packages to the destinations like the UK, France, Rome, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland, others prefer destinations such as Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and Dubai where the lead time for obtaining a visa is a few days or the countries that have visa on arrival for Indians such as Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Mauritius and Maldives. With Seychelles also commencing direct flight from Mumbai, this destination is expected to pick up for weekend travel, according to Cox & Kings.

Vicki Parris, national brand leader India, Flight Shop, a travel management company, said, "The extended Easter weekend is one of the longest weekends for many Indian travellers this year. Indian travellers are becoming savvy 'mini vacationers', planning multiple getaways over extended long-weekends, than one annual welcome break. This Easter weekend, Flight Shop has seen a demand for short-haul beach vacations to destinations like Maldives and Sri Lanka. The relaxed visa norms make these locations a favourite among last-minute travel planners. Domestic holidays have also seen greater demand this weekend.

Anand of Cox & Kings pointed out that the most favourite international destinations for this Easter are European destinations such as the UK, France, Rome, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland along with the domestic destinations like Goa, Kerala, Kashmir, Shimla and Darjeeling.

Singh of Ezeego1 said, "A trend we also see is that families are willing to put in a little extra money and plan a short haul international trip, with Thailand being the most popular destination, followed by Singapore-Malaysia and Hong Kong-Macau. Oman is attracting a lot of luxury travellers who have been there, done that and now wish to explore something new."

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