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If early booking trends are anything to go by, travel companies are expecting around 30% surge in demand this summer. While compared to last year, a vacation during April to June is not going to be any cheaper, but so far it has remained at the same level as 2012.
Companies are attributing much of this trend to the big-bang sales on airfares announced in February by airlines that spurred advance bookings. Last year, domestic air travel had come down due to capacity crunch and an increase in air fares. “They had to do something to stimulate demand once again. This in a sense worked well as a record number of tickets were booked. This is good news for us as these are potential clients that will book a holiday with us,” said Karan Anand, head—relationships, Cox & Kings.
Bucking the slowdown trends, travel companies are expecting a high growth season this summer with most of them doling out discounts, freebies and gifts for vacationers. “Those who book at this time are deal hunters. We have a whole playbook of promotions that we offer,” said Mohit Gupta, chief marketing officer, MakeMyTrip.com.
The leading online travel company is seeing almost 50% increase in the early bookings for summer. Gupta said, Indians are now starting to follow the international trend of booking in advance. “We have already started getting bookings for Durga Pooja and are planning to launch a range of products for the same very soon,” he added.
While European destinations are the all time favourites for summers, places including South Africa, Mauritius, are also seeing increased demand. “The peak travel season is coming up and in the next few months fares are definitely not going to drop, therefore people have started booking in advance” said Sharat Dhal, president, Yatra.com. The company is expecting 5 to 10% increase in its revenues from the sale of packages in the coming financial year.
Cleartrip which claims to have a market share of 20% in online hotel bookings, is seeing a spurt of over 5% in Jan-March bookings. “We have also launched special applications like Fair Alerts which tells the best time to book close to the departure. We are not seeing any slowdown in demand as far as domestic and outbound travel is concerned,” said Noel Swain – Executive Vice President – Supplier Relations – Cleartrip.
