Long weekend: Travel portals see 20 per cent increase in bookings over last year

Most customers have booked their flights and stay two months in advance, as last-minute arrangements increase the travel budget by almost 30 per cent. “While a majority of bookings come from families, we have also seen a surge in bookings by all-women groups, Double Income No Kids (DINKS), and newly-married couples. The pristine beauty of Bali and several options of luxury stay, with August being a favourable month, makes our honeymoon package to Bali one of the bestselling products,” Singh added.

Travellers are also exploring many monsoon destinations, according to Karan Anand, head, relationships, Cox & Kings. “A large number of travellers do not consider monsoon an off-season anymore. The longer weekends this monsoon combined with season discounts have increased the number of Indians taking holidays. Goa, Marari (Kerala), Poovar (Kerala), Gopalpur (Odisha), Mandarmani (West Bengal), Pondicherry (Tamil Nadu) are a hit among domestic travellers,” Anand said.

Yatra.com, a travel booking website, has seen an increase in advance bookings on account of frequent airline sales over the past couple of months. Starting August 11, Jet Airways announced a 30 per cent discount on economy fares and 20 per cent on premiere fares.

“There is a lot of excitement in the market because of the Independence day long weekend.The top three domestic holiday packages that have been booked at Goomo are for destinations like Kerala, Goa and Udaipur,” Varun Gupta, CEO Goomo, an omni-channel travel tech company, said.

State tourism body, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), revealed that resorts at popular monsoon getaways, including Malshej, Bhandardara and Karla, are almost full. “The MTDC booking website shows that resorts at locations like Malshej Ghat, Bhandardara and Karla near Lonavala -Khandala are fully booked. We are also promoting other unexplored destinations that have huge tourism prospects, like Chikhaldara, Jawahar, Tamhini Ghat and Durshet,” said Aashutosh Rathod, joint managing director, MTDC.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) states tourists from Mumbai have largely preferred outings in Singapore and Malaysia. One of their services called E-pay, which allows travellers to pay later for the service taken, has contributed to an increase in the bookings this weekend. “We are expecting a huge rush of travellers moving out of the city on the arterial roads, including Ghodbunder Road, Mumbai-Pune expressway and roads leading to Nashik and Lonavala. We have made specific arrangements to cater to the rush. In the coming week, bandobast will be in place on Tuesday and Thursday to smoothly manage returning traffic,” a senior police inspector from Highway Police said.

Rush for Amritsar

Flight bookings to Amritsar have surged by 15 per cent during the Independence Day weekend compared with the average weekend flight bookings over the past two months. Amritsar rail bookings from Mumbai have spiked by 50 per cent. It may be indicative of rising interest in visiting the Wagah Border or Jallianwala Bagh, officials feel.