Rising Covid-19 cases make travelers cancel their trips

Published on : Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Increasing Covid-19 cases across India has put plans of many travelers to rest with people canceling their trips.
The week starting March 29 to April 4, which is the perfect time for people to plan 3-day getaways or longer 8-10 day holidays, witnessed an 18 per cent decline in hotel bookings, compared to the previous week of March 22-28.

Cities like Pondicherry witnessed a 53 per cent fall in bookings, while both Alwar and Delhi NCR witnessed a 51 per cent fall in bookings. Lucknow and Chandigarh were at -43 per cent and -41 per cent, respectively; Shimla and Jaipur were at -39 per cent and -19 per cent, respectively.

“One of the major reasons for the drop in bookings during a perfectly good time of the year to holiday is, the rise in coronavirus cases, as a result of which people want to avoid travelling. Since it is the end of the financial year, people are busy with their closings and another reason for families postponing travel is because of exams,” said Kamesh Shukla, EVP and head APMEA, RateGain.

Goa became the most booked destination, while New Delhi and Jaipur were among the top three most booked destinations from Holi to Easter (March 27 to April 4). Besides hotels, domestic travelers chose to stay at resorts, guest houses and homestays.

IntrCity, India’s largest tech-driven mobility brand with its SmartBus network, witnessed a marginal 1 per cent drop in national bookings in the week from March 29 to April 4 compared to the previous week.