With Long Weekends Knocking On Their Doors, Indians Are Set To Hit The Road

With first long weekend of the New Year knocking the doors, Indians are ready to hit the road once again. “The hustle and bustle of urban life seems to be driving Indians to take frequent, short vacations to recharge their batteries. People are travelling using different modes of transport as well, with self driven road trips becoming extremely popular. This year has a large number of extended weekends and we expect to see bookings spike for each of these weekends through the year. The upcoming Republic Day weekend has seen a huge surge in hotel bookings at destinations close to the metros, with a number of these being sold out already,” said Sharat Dhall, president of Yatra.

According to the latest statistics by online travel booking site, Yatra.com, 45% of the people surveyed have made travel plans for the weekend, of which 34% have already made the reservations in advance.
“In terms of the budget, 42% visitors are opting for destinations that cost less than Rs 6,000 per person for a weekend leisure. While at the other end of the spectrum, 8.8% of the travellers are fine with trips costing Rs 21,000 or more per person,” said Sharat Dhall, president of Yatra.

Long weekends: The new trend

According to the survey, 50% of the travellers are booking packages in advance for the long weekends. To make the most of the weekend and not waste much time travelling to the destination, about 33% travellers opt for flights.

Also, the fact that airlines in the country have been regularly coming up with flash sales has also helped make air travel accessible to the regular working class.

“Air bookings for the long weekend have increased by a little over 100% over the same period last year, and the hotels and packages business has grown by 247% over last year. Self-driven travel features prominently in the survey with 30% people planning to drive down to their chosen destinations for the long weekends,” noted Dhall.

What influences the choice?

The survey has revealed that 39% of travellers are willing to travel beyond 400kms on a long weekend trip, whereas 27% prefer to stay within a 200 kms circle. The study also stated that 50% of the travellers preferred Internet to choose their destination. On the other hand, word-of-mouth influenced a good 26% travellers when it came to selecting their destination.

Interestingly, of the 50% people who surf the internet for making their wise choices, 57% preferred 2-3 online travel portals to decide on the place to visit. “Of course, I check for great deals and packages on these websites, when I plan to go for quick trips with my friends. This weekend, we are planning to go to Udaipur and have got a great package on one of these travel sites. It is more economical as well,” said Abhishek Rathi, a senior manager with a private sector bank.

The survey has disclosed that accommodation heavily influences the decision making process of a traveller. Nearly 27% people look for the best hotel prices along with the packages being offered while 20% visitors are particular about the amenities offered by the hotels. Around 26% also bank on customer reviews before selecting a hotel.

Getting away from the hustle-bustle: The favourite destinations

According to the study, some of the preferred tourist destinations for quick trips are Goa, Jaipur, Coorg and Puri among others. In the North, travellers preferred places such as Jaipur, Jim Corbett, Amritsar along with Shimla and Varanasi to take a break from the monotony; while in the South, people prefer destinations such as Coorg in Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry to relax their minds. In the East, some people preferred the icy hills of the Sikkim and Darjeeling, while other preferred to hop to the shores of Puri in Odisha. In the West, Goa remained the eternal favourite while some chose Mahabaleshwar and Gujarat as well.

Dubai, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia remained the favourite internation destinations for the long weekend trips.

Image: indiatimes