Slowdown has forced international travellers to opt for budget friendly destinations for satisfying their holidaying urge in the upcoming festive season.
According to travel portal Cleartrip, vacation has become a periodic break-out which has led to continuous growth, but travellers are opting for relatively less expensive holidaying destinations.
“The share of travel to relatively more expensive destinations like US, Europe, Australia has come down to 19 per cent from 25 per cent in August,on a year-on-year basis,” Balu Ramachandran, senior vice president at Cleartrip, told Business Standard.
Travel planner Thomas Cook is of the view that while short hauls like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Thailand and Bali continue to top the leader-board, Japan, Korea, Egypt and South Africa have seen impressive growth in tourist arrival this year.
Moreover, with attractive pricing, holiday-goers are also opting for central and eastern Europe like Croatia, Hungary and the Czech Republic which has been witnessing strong demand from value conscious Indian consumers. At the same time, offbeat destinations like Cambodia, Scandinavia and Vietnam have also seen traction in recent times.
“Our High Net-Worth Individual and corporate MICE (meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions) segments are smartly opting for unique experiences and embracing the concept of affordable luxury at destinations like Azerbaijan”, Rajeev Kale, president and country head, holidays, MICE, visas, at Thomas Cook India told Business Standard.
Europe coupled with England has been the most favoured destination for summer travel, according to Travel organizer, SOTC. This renewed interest from Indians is due to the overlap of spring season and the Cricket World Cup 2019
Further, tour organisers feel the demand for international holidays is expected to be strong with airlines offering steep discounts and additional options on flights.
“In the upcoming festive season, we are positive that the industry will see great demand. With travel becoming non-negotiable, many Indians generally work around their itineraries to incorporate a holiday within their budget”, Daniel D’Souza, president and country head, leisure at SOTC Travel told Business Standard.
To further the momentum, major tour organisers like SOTC and Thomas Cook are also offering special packages backed by discounts in sale periods.
“While India is a notoriously late-booker market, we are witnessing a noticeable trend of advance booking, where leisure travellers are planning early to leverage early bird offers and special discounts to ensure more bang for their buck”, Kale said.
To keep costs under control while meeting aspirations, Indians are also opting for tour packages in Europe, USA, Canada and others in off-season and thus autumn travel has gained momentum.
D’Souza said that airfares have risen marginally during the festival season but it is not affecting the travel plans of customers as they have chalked out travel plans well in advance to cash in on better offers.
Nishant Kashikar, country manager of India & Gulf at Tourism Australia said that despite the closure of Jet Airways and the general elections in April-May, his company witnessed a six 6 per cent increase in arrivals during the January to May this year.
The average growth recorded for the company in the months of June and July 2019 was 15 per cent suggesting partial recovery of the Indian economy.