As India slowly opens up, tourists begin to check in

New Delhi: Leisure bookings and travel to popular holiday destinations went up significantly in September over August despite the surge in Covid-19 cases, pointing to green shoots of recovery in the tourism sector that has been crippled by the protracted lockdown. Nishant Pitti, co-founder of EaseMyTrip, said average daily tickets sold in September for airports in Goa, Udaipur, Bagdogra, Port Blair and Cochin, went up on his platform to 571, 126, 651, 67, and 575 respectively, registering a growth of around 340%, 147%, 80%, 219%, and 144% over August.Travellers are mostly opting for homestays, villas and more personalised modes of accommodation. Aditya Agarwal, head of corporate strategy at Cleartrip, said the portal has seen a pickup in September coinciding with easing of travel and quarantine restrictions. “This suggests that pent-up demand for leisure travel is now starting to get converted into bookings,” Agarwal said. “In September, booking volumes to Kochi are around 25% of previous year volumes, while Udaipur and Jaipur are around 24% and 30%, respectively, of previous year volumes.Goa is slightly lower at around 18% of last year's volumes.” Hoteliers said bookings for accommodation in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have also been going up as the two states eased travel restrictions for outsiders. In a whitepaper released on October 1 titled ‘Domestic leisure demand picks up in India’, Vidhi Godiawala, business development manager for central and South Asia at hotel industry tracker STR, said that Rajasthan, Karnataka and Punjab were the first to attract domestic leisure guests. Goa, where occupancy was in a state of limbo and in single digits until August, has seen considerable upward movement with weekend leisure demand growing ‘robustly.’ Kochi, a market that initially saw high occupancy rates during the lockdown mainly on account of the GCC quarantine business, has also begun to see an uptick in weekend hotel demand. As per STR, hotels in these destinations have also started getting the weddings business, aiding their recovery. According to a survey done by ixigo with over 5,000 users in September, 21% of the respondents said that they were travelling for a workation.

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