Travel Demand Between September-November 2023 To Remain High

(MENAFN- Live Mint) "New Delhi: India's inbound travel is expecting to see a strong momentum till November this year, with a sizeable year-on-year increase in travel during the festive season compared to 2022, according to a new report by RateGain Travel Technologies Limited, a SaaS solutions provider for travel and hospitality firms. The report, which is based on data from its Adara division, said that Australia, the US, Singapore, Canada, and the UK are expected to be the top five source markets for inbound travel to India during this period.Overall, the international arrivals for the period September to November 2023 are 23% higher than the corresponding period in 2022. While leisure demand is lower around this time, as it is typically not vacation season, business arrivals during this period are 53% higher than those in 2022. Additionally, a higher exchange rate, visa delays, and unprecedented heat wave in Europe has kept some affluent travelers back home adding to the domestic demand.The company attributes the strong momentum in inbound travel to India's hosting of the G20 Summit in Delhi in September 2023, which highlighted India's tourism potential and the upcoming festive and event season. This includes the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup as well as the upcoming Miss World event which is expected to be hosted in the capital in the period following the cricketing tournament.“There will also be sustained travel demand for both international and domestic sectors extending up to June next year on the back of the Indian General Elections. This will be a short in the arm for the travel and hospitality industry in India, which is a significant contributor to the gig economy as well as organised labour. This surge will also impact India's smaller cities due to the improved public infrastructure and connectivity,” said Ankit Chaturvedi, vice president and global head of marketing for the company.The report said that the last 75 days have witnessed an extraordinary travel demand trend not just for the National Capital Region (NCR) but overall as well. This makes sense, said experts, and the summit was definitely beneficial from a potential for tourism point of view, making India much talked about and could lead to increased travel over the next few years. The 'Incredible India' tourism marketing campaign which showcases India to the rest of the world has been offline for many years and so an event like this helped bring back the limelight to travel into India. Dipak Deva, managing director of Travel Corporation of India Ltd.“People's perception of travel to a destination is based on the economic sentiment of the country and its general perception and right now it's very positive,” he said.Domestic travel surge expected ahead of ICC Men's Cricket World CupThe report said that domestic travel is also experiencing a seismic shift, with a 65% increase in domestic travel on a year-on-year basis in the same three month period across Mumbai, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, and Lucknow. The World Cup has meant a burst of travel around match dates where hotel demand is soaring across these cities on match and match adjacent dates. Some cities will see as much as 360% increase where inventory is limited.Pune is one of those cities where hotels will see a surge of 360% during the match dates while Ahmedabad will see a 308% increase in hotel prices, owing to the fabled India-Pakistan rivalry. Dharamshala will see a 300% increase while Hyderabad and Chennai will grow at 230% and 220% respectively on these dates. But since these cities have considerably smaller hotel inventories in comparison to the big metros, it has resulted in highly inflated hotel rates.Bangalore, Kolkata, and Lucknow, will see a lower price increases of 205%, 210%, 215%, respectively. Delhi will see the lowest rise at 165%. During this time, airfares for top venues like Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Kolkata will also grow 40%-60% over the past year. Other host cities are also seeing 20%-30% increases in flight prices.

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