As World Cup 2015 nears, travel searches witness a 440% surge in India

While most of us are waiting with bated breath for the ICC World Cup 2015 to begin, there are some cricket fans who are busy finalizing travel plans to watch India play live Down Under. Skyscanner, the global travel search site, has issued a statement that it has recorded a 442% surge in searches to Australia, and 437% increase in searches to New Zealand for travel in the month of February 2015 compared to February 2014. These numbers are specific to India.

This indicates a growing interest amongst fans to combine their passions for cricket and travel, feels Ravish Doctor, Marketing Manager, Skyscanner India. He states, “As the ICC World Cup in Australia kicks off next month, many cricket fans seem to be planning their next holiday, clubbing their passion and leisure time. The World Cup is the ultimate gratification for the sport, and increasing number of people are travelling to Australia and New Zealand to support Team India bring the trophy back home. Our search data shows maximum traction for cities hosting the Indo-Pak match and the quarter finals amongst other matches.”

The website has received the maximum traction from Indian travelers on the 15th Feb, when the highly anticipated match between India and Pakistan is scheduled. For this date, the website has generated a record-breaking surge in travel searches to Adelaide, Australia with an increase of over 752% in flight search in February 2015 as compared with the average monthly searches to the city in 2014. As a whole the maximum searches for flights to Australia and New Zealand between February and March 2015 are from the metro cities of Delhi (up 31% year-on-year), Mumbai (+20%), Chennai (+11%), Hyderabad (+10%) and Bengaluru (+9%). While Delhiites prefer visiting the land of Kangaroos (+65%), cricket fans from Mumbai are evenly split between Australia (+54%) and New Zealand (+46%).

Kiwi cities like Auckland (up 499% year-on-year) and Christchurch (+258%) have recorded the highest growth in searches during the World Cup period, representing the extended travel plans of people visiting New Zealand to watch the tournament. The most popular cities in Australia during the world cup with an increase in travel searches year-on-year are Adelaide (+752%), Gold Coast (+693%), Sydney (+503%), Melbourne (+456%), Perth (+344%), and Brisbane (+252%),

It is expected to be a busy tourist season with more and more fans planning a trip to cheer Team India at Australia and New Zealand.
Image: Indiatimes