Festive season bolstering travel trade post pandemic

With travellers looking forward to embracing safe movement and to set aside their pandemic fatigue, the Travel Trade industry is now looking at the on-going festive season to re-start with full vigour and passion. Environment is now open for the travel fraternity, who are ready to tackle customers and have upgraded themselves and skilled the teams as per the rules and protocols of both hygiene and safety. 

Grossly damaged industry may take some time to revive completely, however, positive signs can be seen with restrictions easing and the return of some ‘normalcy’. Eagerness to travel can be seen and felt while dealing with curious customers raising enquiries while making their travel plans with family or friends, which they haven’t been able to do so for nearly two years. 

As we all know, travelling is not only to provide a vacation from the ennui of routine but is also extremely important for one’s mental well-being. The pandemic confined many of us to our homes – working from home, cooking at home, and doing every possible thing we can think of from our homes within restricted walls. However, travelling now is not a want but it has become a need, to feel the freshness of hilly air or the warmth of a beach at sunset. 

With the beginning of the festive season, and the trend of travelling solo or with family & friends is gaining popularity, these vacations have become a significant part of the festive period. Diwali is one of the most important festivals in India, which is celebrated throughout the country, those who live away from their families also look forward to getting back home and being with their loved ones or maybe just go out for a quick getaway. 

With the vaccination roll-out and larger numbers of the population in India being vaccinated, travel plans are regaining confidence. Having no quarantine in the UK & many more countries specially for the fully ‘Covishield’ vaccinated Indians, the doors for Indian travellers have opened there as well and in the near future, we will be seeing many Indian tourists travelling to the UK, Europe and other destinations. Inbound also will see a surge with free 5 lakhs e-visa facility & more flights open in charters & air bubbles.

Domestic tourism in parallel is picking-up fast. Goa has been open for a long time now and we already have seen a flood of people visiting there. Destinations like Udaipur, Ladakh, Kashmir, Northeast is observing a stream of travellers, considering they are offering lush and attentive accommodations with attractive deals at par international standards. The tourists have become particularly hygiene cautious and are looking at sanitisation of the hotels with vaccinated staff also for the flights/busses they are booking.

Airfare being in control & flights now operating at hundred percent strength travellers are choosing air more than other modes of transport for a quick and short trip which satisfies their hunger for a break. Having said that, railways are the largest travel network in India, a huge chunk of India’s population still travel via them. To cater to these travellers, GOI has launched festive special trains from 10th Oct 2021 to run on Indian tracks. These special trains service is available for passengers from October 10 to November 21, to meet the growing demand during the festivals like – Durga Puja, Dusshera, Diwali, and Chatt Puja.

We are also experiencing and observing hike in travellers to spiritual destinations like Tirupati and Shirdi but out of that 80-85 per cent of business is coming in from the city which is connected by drivable distance v/s cross state border. Also, the destinations with mountains or beaches are most popular with travellers, like Lonavala, Shimla, Mussoorie, and Manali.

Not only hills and beaches, but major metros and big towns like Hyderabad, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Vijayawada, Ahmadabad, Mumbai, and Visakhapatnam are also getting a lot of traction. “Dekho Apna Desh’’ by Ministry of Tourism has been a wonderful initiative to showcase & motivate the Indian traveller.

Demographic of the tourist & destination has evolved & thus the plans are being made with proper care & consideration. Tourism Ministry in collaboration with Health and State Governments is making sure that vaccinated people travel and, if not vaccinated, they have mandated RTPCR before travelling on several routes. Strict guidelines & protocols as per the new norms are laid down, adopted & adapted by the hospitality and tourism industry as well. The resilient sector is rising to meet this challenge.

With this we see a paradigm shift in the tourism sector across the globe, which we believe will go a long way in setting standards and revolutionise the way travel sector has worked till today.