Post-ceasefire, the travel bug is back; but with some caution

Bengaluru: If the Indo-Pak crossfires had taken the steam out of travel plans in the peak summer vacation, the ceasefire has brought a revival. To the relief of the travel industry, they are seeing the stream of cancellations die out, though travellers are still treading with caution.

“While the reopening of the 32 airports is a positive step, demand recovery will take time. The rebound is expected to be gradual as travellers regain confidence and airlines re-establish routes. Travellers are increasingly preferring departures from safe metro cities, preferably southern ones,” said Hari Ganapathy, Co-founder, Pickyourtrail.

Pickyourtrail, along with other travel brands, is seeing strong, sustained demand for Southeast Asia and European destinations like Greece, France, and Netherlands.

“Flights to Thailand, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka are picking up, along with those to the UK and European Union. Still, the steam is lost. With so many people dropping their travel plans, the market will be at less than 50% of what we saw last year,” according to Sanjay Dang, Managing Director of Le Travel World.

On the domestic front, travellers are opting for nearby religious places, Dang added.

“In the last two days (May 12 to 13), booking volumes have stabilised and passenger traffic has returned to normal. Interestingly, cancellations in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir have suddenly increased, possibly as people who may have booked tickets to leave did not see the need to after the ceasefire was declared,” highlighted a spokesperson from RedBus.

From May 8 to 10, RedBus saw a drop in seat bookings to pilgrimage and leisure destinations (such as a 13% drop from Delhi). Other northern states saw a 15% upsurge in seat booking (driven by Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir), as travellers looked to exit these regions.

One impact of these interrupted travel plans is that fares across travel modes have not jumped as they usually do during the vacation seasons. Ganapathy pointed out, “Travel fares have seen a slight increase due to limited capacity on certain routes, especially those affected by regional unrest. However, fares remain relatively stable for popular Southeast Asian destinations. Compared to last year, there is a moderate uptick in fares, though these are expected to normalise and projected to fluctuate during the peak season now.”

“There has not been a major spike in fares, but we are expecting it soon,” agreed Dang.

Bus fares are trending 2% higher than the comparable period last year due to travel demand continuing, as per RedBus.

On the flip side, there is the backlash against Turkey and Azerbaijan for their support to Pakistan, in the Indo-Pak clash, unleashed by most travel aggregators, who have en masse announced they are suspending flight and hotel bookings as well as travel packages and offers to the two countries in a show of “solidarity with India’s national interest”, as put in Flipkart-owned Cleatrip’s announcement on LinkedIn.

Go Homstays have also ended their partnerships with Turkish Airlines, and some like Goa Villas have decided not to offer any accommodation services to Turkish citizens in Goa. Ixigo has also suspended flights and hotel bookings to China, as announced on an X post.