New Delhi Air fares have increased by up to 33% during the first half of March due to increased travel associated with festivals like Holi and demand to spiritual and cultural destinations, industry executives said.
“Apart from festival travel demand, we are also seeing an overall increase in spiritual tourism demand in March and April. Cultural destinations such as Varanasi and Tirupati saw the highest return, and are the most searched spiritual centers to visit this year. We are seeing a 50% increase in demand for travel to cultural and pilgrimage destinations like Mysuru, Madurai and Amritsar this summer,” said Rajnish Kumar, co-founder and group chief product and technology officer at ixigo, an online travel portal.
Ixigo has seen a 30% increase in advance bookings this year for the Holi week for holiday travel to popular domestic and short-haul international destinations such as Jaipur, Goa, Kashmir, Dubai and Singapore. The travel portal said average airfares on popular routes also increased by up to 33% during the week, mainly driven by strong demand.
Travel portal EaseMyTrip, which has observed a similar trend, says it has also seen a rise in airfares to even smaller foreign destinations such as Dubai and Singapore, while travel demand to Mathura has doubled.
During the first week of March, the festive journey has also spread throughout the week, as Holi is celebrated in some regions on March 6–7 and in others on March 7–8.
“As Holi is scheduled on a weekday, many working professionals have opted to work from home, allowing them to travel to new places and tourist spots on their to-do list. As a result of the rising demand, there has been an increase in airfares in the build-up to Holi, said Rickant Pitti, co-founder of EaseMyTrip.
According to ixigo, fares have increased by 33% on the Mumbai-Goa route, 23% on Pune-Delhi, 20% on Delhi to Bengaluru and Lucknow and 13% on New Delhi-Ranchi.
“Another intriguing observation is that despite the increase in airfares, people’s desire to travel has not been affected,” Pitti said.
The fourth quarter is traditionally a weak one for airlines, but that seems to have changed. Average daily domestic air passengers were over 430,000 in the first week of March, over 420,000 in February, 405,000 in January and 410,000 in December. In fact, the average daily passengers in the March quarter so far are stronger than the figures of 370,000 and 390,000 recorded in the festive months of October and November, respectively.
The hospitality industry has also seen an increase in demand. Travel portal Kayak said it has seen an 89% increase in searches for domestic hotels for the March 5-11 Holi travel period compared to a year ago. This is despite a 41% increase in average tariffs at 3- and 4-star domestic hotels during the same period.
“Indians are making the most of their time, be it a mid-week break or some more extended time to enjoy the last days of spring,” said Tarun Tahiliani, Country Manager, Kayak India.
The demand is also being reflected on train travel. To meet the sudden surge in demand, Indian Railways has added 90 additional Holi special trains this month.
“While we initially saw a 27% increase in bus travel bookings from March 1-8, there has been a sudden increase in travel bookings, which have increased by 50% in the week for travel from March 10-12,” Rohit Sharma, Chief operating officer, said Abhibus.
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