The scaled-up vaccination drive, despite the resurgence in COVID-19 positive cases, is fuelling hopes of summer travel bouncing back this year after a no-show in 2020.
For many of the online travel agencies, leisure travel is already at 70 percent of pre-COVID-19 levels. Inquiries are flooding in for elephant and camel safaris, international vacation and pilgrimages.
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"In comparison to advance bookings for summer travel in 2019, we are seeing traction build gradually for the upcoming season. However, as summer sets in and vaccination roll-out picks up pace, we are hopeful we will see it reflect in travel bookings," said Vipul Prakash, Chief Operating Officer, MakeMyTrip, the largest OTA in the country.
Prakash added that the country's largest online travel agency is seeing a 70 percent increase in daily holiday bookings for the upcoming summer season, when compared to the traffic in winter 2020.
Built on vaccination
Much of the optimism comes from the vaccination drive that started in January. Though it may be a tough task to vaccinate the targeted 300 million people by the middle of the year, the drive has scaled up after the government allowed those above the age of 60 years to take the doses. People over the age of 45 with co-morbidities can also now take the jab. As on March 17, about 3.6 crore people have been inoculated.
"We are already seeing a renewed sense of optimism amongst travellers, in the wake of the vaccine roll-out," said Rajnish Kumar, CTO & co-founder, ixigo, on air travel.
"Demand and search queries for air travel are slowly increasing MoM, and domestic travel is on the road to a strong recovery. Domestic leisure travel is bouncing back and we are already at 70 percent recovery in terms of our monthly active users. On the international front we are still at 40 percent of pre-COVID range in terms of bookings due to current country restrictions," he added.
Aloke Bajpai, CEO and co-Founder of ixigo, calls this vaccine-fuelled travel or 'vaxications'. He adds: "We are seeing a new trend of vaxications picking up amongst travellers between the age group of 45 and 65 who are eager to travel post getting vaccinated. Enquiries for international travel are also picking up for destinations like Seychelles starting flights from April onwards."
Other international destinations that are seeing higher inquiry and demand are Maldives and Russia.
Goa, adds Rajiv Subramanian, Vice President, Cleartip, continues to be among the top domestic destinations, continuing its good run from December 2020. Some of the lesser-known hotspots, points out Prakash, are in Assam, Daman & Diu, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Interestingly, increased customer confidence is rubbing off on corporate travel too, says Subramanian. This was one segment that was the most impacted amid the pandemic as companies limited travel to cut costs. "Routes between Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai in the top routes, has been the main driver of fares," he said.
Data from Ixigo shows fares inching up on these routes. While on Delhi-Bengaluru, the fare is 12 percent higher from a year ago, the rate is 25 percent higher on Hyderabad-New Delhi and 13 percent up on the Mumbai-Delhi route. The highest increase, of 35 percent, is on the Bengaluru-Mumbai sector.
While the trend brings hope for the battered travel sector, industry veteran Ajay Prakash, CEO of Mumbai-based Nomad Travels, remains cautiously optimistic. "If one takes the jab today, the immunity will kick in after 45 days. Or, about 15 days after the second jab. That means the person can travel by end of April or early May. And that's the period that is seeing increasing queries from customers. People want to travel," he said.
