Flight bookings, travel spends for Diwali, Dussehra take off in 2024 as demand soars

More Indians are flying during Dussehra, Diwali.

Sluggish urban demand observed in the recent quarterly earnings of FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) companies and finance ministry's commentary on the softening consumer sentiment days before Diwali may have raised alarm bells, but travel demand in the festive season remains unaffected.

More Indians are taking to the skies during Dussehra and Diwali despite high airfares as customers are willing to spend more, noted online travel aggregators (OTAs).

Festive bookings during Dussehra and Diwali 2024 have so far surpassed those of 2023 by 20-25 percent and average spending by a domestic Indian customer has also risen by 8-10 percent, data from online travel portals shows.

Diwali dhamaka

A senior executive from travel firm MakeMyTrip (MMT) said that the average expenditure of Indian domestic travellers has risen 15 percent on year to around Rs 28,000- Rs 30,000 during the festival period in 2024 from around Rs 25,000 to Rs 27,000 a year ago.

“Holiday and leisure destination booking have been higher during the festival period in 2024 when compared to 2023, as more families are willing to spend money to travel as a group during the festival period,” the executive said.

The official added that MMT has seen 8-12 percent higher booking in the 21 days festival period in 2024 when compared to 2023, with bus booking rising nearly 25 percent, and air tickets rising 15 percent.

"We have observed a significant increase in bookings for the Diwali holidays, fueled by a recent reduction in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, perfectly coinciding with the festive season," said Nishant Pitti, CEO & Co-Founder, EaseMyTrip (EMT).

Also read: Airfares fly too high to fire up the festive spirit in Dussehra and Diwali this year

Local love

Travel from top routes like Mumbai registered a 0.16 percent overall spike in year-on-year (YoY) air bookings, according to travel platform Cleartrip data.

From Mumbai, the destinations which saw the most spike in air bookings this Diwali include Goa, Denpasar with a 4.3 percent and a 4.2 percent increase in bookings.

Top domestic routes which have reported an uptick in flight bookings are Delhi-Kolkata, Bengaluru-Patna with a 2.4 percent and 1.4 percent increase in YoY bookings.

Popular destinations such as Rajasthan, Kerala, Ayodhya, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Jaipur are seeing substantial interest, pointed out Pitti.

On the domestic front, Lucknow, Jaipur, Varanasi, and Dehradun recorded a 60 percent rise in flight bookings during Diwali, according to travel portal Ixigo.

India registered a record number of domestic flyers in the festive month of October at 1.04 crore, up 20.5 percent from 86.7 lakh domestic flyers during the same period last year.

Domestic air traffic flew to a record single-day high of 4.8 lakh passengers on October 14, rising over 2.6 percent from the previous peak of 4.7 lakh hit on April 22. The massive traffic on the first work day after Navratri, Dussehra and Durga Pooja celebrations was borne by 6,435 flights, according to data from the civil aviation ministry.

Also read: Travel bookings surge 5-fold for Holi, Good Friday holidays, temple towns to see big rush

International interest

Internationally, travellers are flocking to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Vietnam, Thailand, Dubai, and Egypt, he said.

Kuala Lumpur and Denpasar are in demand this Diwali with significant uptick in bookings. Ixigo has witnessed a growing demand for international travel.

Kuala Lumpur tops the chart among international destinations with a 144 per cent year-on-year (YoY) increase in flight bookings. Thailand, Georgia and Bali have recorded 105, 94 and 77 per cent YoY uptick in flight bookings, respectively, ixigo data showed.

Thailand, Georgia, Bali, Vietnam, and Singapore have topped the list. These destinations have recorded up to 80 per cent increase in bookings for October. "Sri Lanka, which earlier this year announced visa-free access to Indians, has also reported a surge in travel searches for October and November, making it a popular choice for festive getaways," said Aloke Bajpai, Group CEO, ixigo.

Travellers from major metropolitan cities have led to the surge in demand for international travel this festive season. Data shared by travel platform Pickyourtrail showed that 23 percent of international travellers were from Bengaluru, followed by Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai at 20 percent, 18 percent and 15 percent respectively. Other cities such as Kochi and Hyderabad also joined the international travel party this festive season.

Average spending on international travel and booking to international destinations has also risen in the festival period in 2024 when compared to a year ago, the MMT executive cited above said.

“International bookings are around 11 percent higher in 2024 when compared to a year ago, and average spending by Indians overseas has risen to nearly Rs 1.3 lakh from Rs 1.15 lakh a year ago,” the executive told Moneycontrol.

More check-ins

For Dussehra and Diwali, Cleartrip recorded a spike of 1.4x in hotel bookings.

Compared to last year, there's a 40-50 percent growth in sales, driven by a 30-35 percent increase in property value and a 10 percent rise in price, pointed out Devendra Parulekar, founder of SaffronStays, a private vacation rental home platform.

Udaipur is the top trending domestic destination for Indian travellers. It has reported a 220 per cent increase in online searches, followed by Puducherry at 200 percent, according to travel platform Booking.com's accommodation search data between September 19 to 26 this year, with check-in dates between October 31 and November 03, 2024.

Splurging spree

Millennials are spending more than the older generations when it comes to travel, said Mallika Sheth, Co-founder of travel firms TravelK and TealFeel. "We’re seeing short duration travel to relatively newer destinations this year than before and that can be attributed to visa reforms and social media. Disposable income is another significant reason for the increases year on year," she said.

Millennials spend $6,031 on an average annually on travel. In contrast, Gen Z, Gen X, and Boomers spend $2,622, $3,059, and $2,600, respectively, on travel each year, according to the Collinson International’s ‘2024 Travel Benefits and Customer Engagement Report.’

In addition, many air routes recorded a significant uptick in airfares with the highest YoY increase for the Ahmedabad-New Delhi route at 34 percent to Rs 8,758 from Rs 6,533 between October 28 and November 3.

During the same period, the airfare for the Mumbai-Dehradun route went up by 33 percent from Rs 11,710 to Rs 15,527. For the Bengaluru-Lucknow route, prices were up by 30 percent from Rs 7,368 to Rs 9,587.

Earlier, Moneycontrol reported that airfares have zoomed up to Rs 30,000 on some routes and average airfare to popular leisure destinations such as Goa and Jaipur have risen up to 20 percent during the festive season.

On the other hand, EMT's Pitti pointed out that a recent reduction in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices has led to a 20-25 percent decrease in domestic airfares, providing much-needed relief for travellers planning their festive getaways, especially given that prices had previously soared to 2-3 times higher.