The pandemic has gone nowhere but Indians have had enough of staying at home. In a phenomenon that the tourism industry is referring to as ‘revenge travel’, people in large numbers and across cities are packing their bags — as well as laptops and WiFi dongles — to head out to holiday spots. It could be a vacation, a staycation or a workation but the travel shoes are back on despite the risk of a Covid-19 infection remaining high – a response to months of complete home confinement.
The ‘revenge travel’ trend picked up from Unlock 4, bringing some relief to an industry that took one of the worst blows of the pandemic, and is tied to states with a high concentration of touristy places easing Covid protocols for travellers. In mid-September, Himachal Pradesh did away with the requirement that individuals entering the state have to produce a Covid-negative report or an e-pass. Uttarakhand followed suit later that month. Now, only those travelling from Covid hotspots need to quarantine for 14 days or produce a Covid-negative report.
According to travel portals, while drivable destinations such as Shimla, Mussoorie, Rishikesh, Coorg and Nainital remain the hot favourites, air travel to destinations such as Goa has also been picking up in volume. Taran Pant, who runs his own digital marketing firm in Noida, was one of those who recently flew to the sun-kissed beaches of the Arabian Sea. “I wanted to get away with friends for a few days because work from home has been monotonous and tiring. We spent the last week in Goa,” he said.
Travel booking companies have also seen the duration of stays at holiday spots increase, simply because people are travelling with their laptops and working from the hotel, the beach shack, by the riverside, at the hill station, in the forest resort — making the most of the flexible office while it lasts. For example, around 20% of all searches on Airbnb, a portal that facilitates homestays and lodging for tourists, were for durations up to 28 days.
“We believe travel is an innate need and the pursuit of new experiences and of human connection is perennial,” says Amanpreet Bajaj, general manager of Airbnb India, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. “Staying indoors for many months has created a strong pent-up demand for travel and people are eager to connect and travel again, whether to explore new destinations or reconnect with people.”
Vipul Prakash, CEO of Makemytrip, says the portal has seen a 30% increase in bookings for longer stays since Unlock 4.0 compared with the months preceding the pandemic. The website’s weekend packages were booked 25% times more than in January and February this year.
Since September, MMT’s competitor Yatra.com has also seen an upward trend in hotel bookings. “The trend of ‘revenge tourism’ gained momentum over the last couple of months as travellers have been looking forward to making those extra trips to destinations such as Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan Jaipur, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Himachal, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Pune. Booking enquiries to these locations has increased by 32% since during the lockdown,” said a Yatra spokesperson.
As the scenic spots of the country have started getting crowded again, hygiene has become a priority in the hospitality business. “Keeping our hosts and traveller community at the forefront, we recently launched of a set of ‘enhanced cleaning protocols’, the first overarching standardised protocols for cleaning and sanitisation of homestays in the country, reviewed by the Indian Medical Association,” says Bajaj.
Girish Mallya, a publisher and an avid traveller has been to several locations ever since Unlock. Some of the trips have been for visiting extended family, while the others were purely for pleasure. Soon, he says, he plans to launch a campaign to inspire people start travelling again but with precautions and by maintaining social distancing.
This positive sentiment might, however, not result in an immediate turnaround for the industry, feel insiders, adding that the revival is likely to be L-shaped, taking longer to bounce back rather than V-shaped, which would mean a sharp upswing. “It is too early for us to be talking about revenge travel. Revenge travel will be a reality when hotels are overbooked and flights and buses are charging a premium,” says Pronab Sarkar, president, Indian Association of Tour Operators. Currently, he adds, only 25% to 30% of the population is travelling and most are booking their tours online, which has not helped the operators bounce back.