Travel heavy on the pocket

After spending months cooped up indoors, droves of people have picked up their bags to head over to tourist destinations, keen to make up for the lost time. Hill stations and beaches are teeming with people eager to exercise their newfound freedom. With demand increasing, travel has become dearer, costing 20-30 per cent more than what it would have been before the pandemic, but the travellers don’t seem to mind.

Due to the pandemic, the Indian hospitality industry suffered losses worth Rs 1.3 lakh crore in 2020-21 according to the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India. A rise in the hotel costs, say industry insiders, would help make up the loss to some extent.

Nikhilesh Pillay, 32, who travelled to three places including Goa in the past few months, has witnessed a two-fold rise in hotel prices. “Not just that, even the price of renting a scooter has increased three to four times in Goa,” he said.

Though summer has traditionally seen a jump in bookings, the past few months saw an unexpected rise, with long weekends being particularly busy. Between April 11 and April 16, the daily air passenger count hung around 3.5 lakhs, crossing the 4 lakh mark on April 17 for the first time since the pandemic.

Advance bookings

Himank Tripathi, a senior executive of the popular travel portal Easemytrip, says “The company recorded a 40-50 per cent increase in advance air ticket bookings for the upcoming summer period owing to pent up demand.”

Airfares too went up by 20-30 per cent in recent weeks, largely due to consecutive hikes in aviation turbine fuel, inflation and increased demand for air tickets.

Aditya Dalwani (28), who visited Thiruvananthapuram and Goa recently, says sometimes even booking tickets in advance would not fetch a good price. “Before Covid-19, the flights to Thiruvananthapuram would cost about Rs 4,000 if we booked a month in advance. Now the price range for the same flights is between Rs 6,000-8,000,” he says.

Among the most travelled domestic destinations are Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Goa. “Also there has been a significant increase in bookings and inquiries for travel destinations in the North-Eastern region of India,” added Tripathi.

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