Short getaways a hit for Easter weekend

Operators such as Radisson Hotel Group, Thomas Cook India and online tour operator Cleartrip, said demand is primarily for drivable getaways.

Data from Flipkart-owned Cleartrip showed hotel bookings for the Good Friday weekend is far higher compared to other long weekends, more so, for destinations such as Wayanad (338%), Mussoorie (288%) Ooty (170%), Jaipur (36%), and Goa (27%). Flight bookings, too, have seen a similar trend for destinations such as Visakhapatnam (320%), Kochi (14%) and Srinagar (11%). However, flight booking for Goa and Jaipur fell by 20-30% due to higher airfares, Cleartrip said.

“We are seeing an increase of about 3x in travel demand for the extended weekend versus previous long weekends of 2023. There is a strong uptick in family travel, young professionals and millennials, couples as well as ad-hoc groups of friends. Compared to March, airfare for popular routes from hubs such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru to tourist destinations like Chandigarh, Srinagar, Dehradun, Kochi, Port Blair and Goa witnessed a 20-60% surge for this weekend, besides 5-8% rise in airfares for business routes, which is indicative of significant appetite for holiday traffic and migrant working population travelling home for short breaks,” said Indiver Rastogi, president and group head, global business travel, Thomas Cook (India) and SOTC Travel.

However, the rise in airfares are also forcing people to look for road trip getaways. “Drivable destinations are doing better, as high air travel costs are causing downward pressures on leisure travel on domestic circuits,” said Zubin Saxena, managing director and senior area vice president, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group.

SaffronStays, a villa and holiday home rental firm, is looking at a fully booked weekend. “As we anticipated, the Easter long weekend has turned out to be good for us, with almost all villas sold out. A few that are available, are because of last-minute cancellations. The holiday comes after a long wait as Holi fell on a weekday but did not see much uptake as exams were just round the corner. At the year-ago period, we had 125 homes against the 235 we have now, and yet, everything is full,” Devendra Parulekar, founder of SaffronStays, said.

Luxury Escapes, a company that sells hotel and travel packages, has seen demand uptick for hill stations such as Manali, Solan and Kufri, and wildlife properties at Ranthambore.

“We’re tracking a 15% jump for this weekend compared to other long weekends,” Arun Ashok, the regional head India and the Middle East, said.

Thomas Cook India is also witnessing a growing demand for active holidays led by Gen Z’s and millennials with a preference for yachting, kite-sailing, scuba diving, camping and trekking, biking trips, jungle safaris and drives. There is also an increase in drive-cations to hill stations like Nainital, Dehradun, Mussoorie, Panchgani, Mahabaleshwar and Coorg.