Slowdown may not check travel boom this season

Mumbai: Over six million foreign tourists are expected to descend onto various holiday destinations in India this year, enthusing hotel chains and travel companies to gear up to cash in on the bandwagon.
As the last three months of an year form the peak season for travel and leisure holidays, the country will also witness room rates rising by 10 per cent and airlines doubling fares on popular routes.
This increase will come on the back of striking recessionary trends in several western countries and peaking inflation in India. Although corporate travel was widely expected to get impacted, the depreciating rupee will aid this section of travellers, say experts and players.
Rajeev Menon of Marriott International says this will be “fairly solid” with no major challenges. “This is going to be a strong fourth quarter with occupancy levels maintained at the higher end,” he notes.
Large hotel chains such as Taj, Oberoi, Marriott and ITC are keen on hiking room tariffs, which is expected to be in the region of 5-10 per cent, to beat the sluggish first half and to make up for the previous years’ lacklustre peak season.
03/10/11 Swaraj Baggonkar & Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2011