Short-haul, visa-onarrival destinations are gaining traction this summer as airfares and holiday packages to the US and Europe stay expensive due to the Jet Airways crisis and closure of Pakistani airspace.
Travel to destinations like Thailand, Malaysia, Mauritius, Cambodia and the Maldives is picking up with the airlines of some of these countries also enticing travellers with attractive offers, online travel agencies and tour operators said.
“Summer travel has been impacted over the past few months because of issues ranging from capacity constraint due to the grounding of Jet Airways to the closure of airspace over Pakistan that has led to an increase in airfares. We have noticed travellers favouring short-haul destinations, especially those that offer visa-free entry or visa-on-arrival to Indians, like Bhutan, the Maldives, Bali, Thailand and Macau,” said Vipul Prakash, chief operating officer at MakeMyTrip.
East-bound travel to these locations has grown by over 18% from last year, as airfares for Europe and the US have risen by 20-25%, Prakash said. “This has obviously shown some trickledown effect on long-haul destination holiday packages as about 40-50% price of the package is governed by the airfare cost,” he added.
Pakistan extended the closure of its airspace to overflying aircraft till 5.30 am on June 15. The restriction, imposed since February 27, was expected to be lifted by end of this month.
07/06/19 Anumeha Chaturvedi/Mihir Mishra/Economic Times
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Travel to destinations like Thailand, Malaysia, Mauritius, Cambodia and the Maldives is picking up with the airlines of some of these countries also enticing travellers with attractive offers, online travel agencies and tour operators said.
“Summer travel has been impacted over the past few months because of issues ranging from capacity constraint due to the grounding of Jet Airways to the closure of airspace over Pakistan that has led to an increase in airfares. We have noticed travellers favouring short-haul destinations, especially those that offer visa-free entry or visa-on-arrival to Indians, like Bhutan, the Maldives, Bali, Thailand and Macau,” said Vipul Prakash, chief operating officer at MakeMyTrip.
East-bound travel to these locations has grown by over 18% from last year, as airfares for Europe and the US have risen by 20-25%, Prakash said. “This has obviously shown some trickledown effect on long-haul destination holiday packages as about 40-50% price of the package is governed by the airfare cost,” he added.
Pakistan extended the closure of its airspace to overflying aircraft till 5.30 am on June 15. The restriction, imposed since February 27, was expected to be lifted by end of this month.
07/06/19 Anumeha Chaturvedi/Mihir Mishra/Economic Times
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