Mumbai: Online travel portals have witnessed a surge in bookings for travel around January 26 on the back of lower airfares with demand for destinations including Puri, Puducherry and Gangtok.
"Keen holiday planners are exploring interesting and offbeat destinations for the Republic Day weekend. On Cleartrip, we are seeing places like Puducherry, Puri and Gangtok debut amongst the Top 10 destinations that Indians are visiting this January while destinations like Goa and Jaipur continue to be amongst the favourites. Advance purchase for this weekend has spiralled too. At Cleartrip, over 82% people booked their travel for the Republic Day Long Weekend, over 30-days in advance. Interestingly, over 25% of these bookings were made on Cleartrip Mobile,'' said Samyukth Sridharan, president of Cleartrip.
Last week airlines led by Air India halved their fares across domestic network. Other airlines followed suit reducing fares. Lower fares has led to an uptick in holiday planning, said travel agents.
"Domestic and outbound tourism is on an upswing. Excluding Goa we are seeing 5-7% growth in inbound tourists. People are taking short trips to hill stations and destinations like Bangkok, Singapore and Sri Lanka are also popular,'' said Gour Kanjilal, executive director of Indian Association of Tour Operators.
20/01/15 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard
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"Keen holiday planners are exploring interesting and offbeat destinations for the Republic Day weekend. On Cleartrip, we are seeing places like Puducherry, Puri and Gangtok debut amongst the Top 10 destinations that Indians are visiting this January while destinations like Goa and Jaipur continue to be amongst the favourites. Advance purchase for this weekend has spiralled too. At Cleartrip, over 82% people booked their travel for the Republic Day Long Weekend, over 30-days in advance. Interestingly, over 25% of these bookings were made on Cleartrip Mobile,'' said Samyukth Sridharan, president of Cleartrip.
Last week airlines led by Air India halved their fares across domestic network. Other airlines followed suit reducing fares. Lower fares has led to an uptick in holiday planning, said travel agents.
"Domestic and outbound tourism is on an upswing. Excluding Goa we are seeing 5-7% growth in inbound tourists. People are taking short trips to hill stations and destinations like Bangkok, Singapore and Sri Lanka are also popular,'' said Gour Kanjilal, executive director of Indian Association of Tour Operators.
20/01/15 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard
