August has a long weekend and Indian consumers are packing their bags to travel to Goa and Bali

• Goa is where everyone’s headed for the long weekends in August.
• For short haul international destinations, Bali has seen a rise in demand for flight bookings and queries.
• Travel and hospitality industry is slated to grow by nearly 90% this year.

With Independence Day and Raksha Bandhan around the corner, August has three long weekends. Indian travelers, after staying home for almost two years, want to make the most of it by planning short getaways in advance.

“Long-weekend cheer is back, and many are eagerly waiting to head-out to make the most of this upcoming weekend,” said Vipul Prakash, COO, MakeMyTrip.

Companies are seeing an uptick in leisure travel, staycations and people traveling to their hometowns for the long break from August 11- 15. “Coorg, Kerala and Pondicheryy are amongst the top favorite destinations searched by travelers this monsoon,” shared Aloke Bajpai, Group CEO and co-founder of Ixigo.

Goa however remains the strongest contender, ranking alongside the edgy suburbs — with more than 100% increase in flight search queries — as the ideal beach destination for unwinding.

As per data recorded on Goibibo, there is a consistent week-on-week increase in bookings across hotels and alternate accommodation properties in some of the preferred leisure hotspots.

"Currently, across both the segments, we are recording a w-o-w growth in higher single-digit, and we are expecting this momentum to continue over the comings days. We are noticing an uptick in bookings for homebound travel. Data further indicates that 49% of the flight bookings are for travel to tier II and III sectors, suggesting that many are planning to head home to spend the long-weekend and the festival of Rakhi with friends and family," Vipul Prakash, COO, Goibibo told Business Insider India

Amongst cities, Bangalore is high on the list. Ooty too is a top favorite destination after Pondicherry.

Delhiites and Mumbaikars are heading to the hills of Shimla, Mahabaleshwar and Lonavala. Udaipur and Rishikesh made it to the list.

Travel bugs are also flying abroad for short-haul vacations.

Vipul Prakash, COO, MakeMyTrip said, “On the international front, people are opting for short-haul travel to Singapore, Thailand and Dubai. Close on the heels are Bali, Istanbul and London – that are seeing a spike in bookings for the said period.”

As consumer travel sentiments remain strong towards traveling, the hospitality industry is optimistic about the future of travel and the return of leisure as international borders have reopened. "The sector is expected to grow by around 80%-90% this year," says Aditya Gupta, Senior VP of Yatra.com.

“So far, 2022 has been promising for the travel and hospitality industry owing to higher consumer confidence to travel, especially this season," Shreerang Godbole, SVP - product & chief service officer of Oyo told Business Insider India.

Indians are also shelling out more money for the long weekend, as 4-star hotels see a rise in queries.

Aditya Gupta, senior VP of Yatra.com, observed a “hike in demand and queries for premium accommodation options, mostly 4 and 5 star properties across hotels and resorts. There has been a subsequent increase in hotel tariff with the average hotel price being ₹7,000-8,000.”

Travel is more flexible today than it ever was due to shifts in trends. For pocket travelers weekend trips often become compacted. For this, hostels have also witnessed a spike in their bookings almost at 100% in destinations like Goa, Udaipur and Coorg.

Experts said that more consumers are opting for experiential and unexplored travel destinations today. Even during the typically lean monsoon season, Indian travelers expressed high travel intent for intercity road trips for about 1-3 days.

"The yearning for travel still runs strong across the country," said Godbole.


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