An outbreak of confirmed and potential coronavirus cases in Delhi, Jaipur and Agra over the past two days has led to a sudden drop in air and rail bookings to these cities. Flight bookings to the Capital have seen an 11 per cent drop in the last two days, compared to a two-day period a fortnight ago. Similarly, flight bookings to Jaipur fell almost 1 per cent, data sourced from travel app ixigo showed. “We have seen an average of 10-15 per cent decrease in train bookings and 5-10 per cent decrease in flight bookings to these cities in the past 48 hours,” an ixigo spokesperson said. Agra only has two scheduled flights every week — Alliance Air flight from Jaipur that has been cancelled since last week because of an Indian Air Force exercise being conducted at the Agra Air Force base. However, between March 2 and March 3, train bookings to Agra fell 24 per cent, compared to February 17 and February 18. The 11-per cent fall in the March 2-3 period over February 17-18 for flight bookings in Delhi is against an almost 25 per cent rise in bookings during the same period last year. Similarly, for Jaipur, flight bookings increased 34 per cent in the same two-day period in 2019, ixigo data showed. Despite the sudden drop in interest for travel to Delhi and Jaipur, domestic destinations are seen to be gaining a leg up considering the situation of the virus outbreak across the world. “Due to the prevailing situation of coronavirus in different locations across the globe, there are many destinations which are expected to face a drop in foreign tourist arrivals because of the advisories issued by various governments. Southeast Asia and Italy being one of the most preferred destinations for Indians, we can anticipate a drop of about 20-25 per cent in terms of future bookings, though it is too early to predict any drastic impact,” said Sabina Chopra, co-founder and COO, corporate travel & head-industry relations, Yatra.com. “They are wary of making fresh bookings to the affected locations and airfares to these destinations have dropped by 20-30 per cent. Travelers are now looking at alternate foreign destinations from India, such as Sri Lanka and Bhutan for summer travel. There is a hike in enquires to domestic destinations such as Andaman & Nicobar, Goa, Ujjain, North-east cities among others,” Chopra added. Chairman of Stic Travel Group and of Assocham Tourism Committee Subhash Goyal said there were 100 per cent cancellations for bookings to affected countries like China, South Korea and Italy. “People are generally afraid to travel because of the virus and we have seen 20-25 per cent cancellations from across the country,” Goyal said.
