Airfares soar, but festive travel booms

Domestic demand remains strong despite rising fuel costs and airfares, fewer flights — Travel bookings are on the rise for the festive season, with significant demand reported by various companies

New Delhi: Despite a spike in airfares, travel bookings are on an upswing for the festive season with travel companies, hotels, alternative accommodation players, and vacation ownership companies reporting a substantial uptick in bookings.

As per an analysis of 3,114 properties across 13 Indian destinations conducted by AI powered pricing and revenue management firm Sciative Solutions shared with ET, average mid-scale hotel rates are likely to rise 26.94% above the pre-Diwali period between November 11-15. Premium rates could follow a similar pattern, rising from a pre-festive average of ₹25,917 to ₹31,163 during post-Diwali weekend.

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Sciative Solutions estimates rates are likely to remain elevated through the second half of November, with mid-scale accommodations averaging ₹11,670 and premium properties averaging approximately ₹32,126.

Vijeta Soni, co-founder and CEO of Sciative Solutions, said the data points to growing demand for festive breaks across destinations such as Goa, Ooty and Mahabaleshwar, and the strongest rate pressure is likely to emerge after Diwali. Goa is likely to see steepest upward price trajectory, with premium rates climbing nearly 42% from ₹24,218 in the pre-Diwali period (October 25-31) to ₹34,355 between November 16-30.

Sterling Holiday Resorts is seeing a 24% year-on-year uptick in festive season demand. Chief marketing officer Anupam Dutta said drive-to holidays are gaining popularity, and improved highway connectivity is reshaping leisure breaks in India.

"We see this opportunity across regional circuits such as Ooty-Wayanad, Coorg-Sakleshpur and Kasauli-Chail-Kufri as well as wildlife destinations such as Pench, Tadoba, Jawai and Gir," he said.

Pickyourtrail is seeing an 80-90% year-on-year uptick in international bookings, with Dussehra long weekend bookings rising 30-32% year-on-year. Maldives, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Sri Lanka remain popular festive destinations for the company. Bookings across travel categories are growing 3-4x between October-December for travel fintech platform Scapia. Rathinamurthy R, head of travel at the company, said smaller beach towns, and wildlife destinations are growing rapidly in demand. Beach and hill station bookings for the Dussehra week were up 3.5x year on year for Scapia.

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Ixigo started seeing an uptick in its trains business in quarter two itself as train bookings start two months prior for Dussehra and Diwali, said group CEO Aloke Bajpai. Bajpai said while he remains cautious on the flights business, as supply hasn't reached pre-conflict levels in West Asia, he is very optimistic about how the festive season will play out for hotels.

"We are seeing an uptick on long weekends, and we hope to continue seeing that as we head into Diwali, Christmas, and the New Year winter vacation period. Near-term momentum looks best for buses and hotels," he added.