Travel sector poised for growth

Come summer and days of holidaying are here. It's boom time for travel and entertainment industry as travel bugs pack their backpacks and set out to see the world.

Though summer vacations are set to begin only around mid-April, holiday bookings have already started.

Karan Anand, director, Cox&Kings says, "The plans for packages have already been announced by most travel agents and bookings are also in full swing."

Summer vacation accounts for more than 60 per cent of the annual business for most travel agencies and consumers have already started enquiring about travel packages for deciding their itineraries.

Emphasising on the importance of summer holidays, Himanshu Patil, director, Kesari Travels says, "Summer vacations account for over 60 per cent of our annual turnover."

In fact, with the growth of consumerism, travel and entertainment industries are seen as the major beneficiaries.

Deep Karla, chief executive officer, Makemytrip.com, an online travel portal says, "Travel market is growing at over 33 per cent year-on-year. Last year, 110 million domestic trips were recorded, of this, atleast 50 million trips presented an opportunity to be monetised as they were to the urban areas. The weekend getaway market alone in India itself is estimated at Rs 5,000-Rs 7,000 crore."