Hotels in India To Record High Demand

According to tour operators, demand for hotels has been strong during the first two weeks of this month, which is not the case with most other years.

Due to the Republic Day holiday and the increased demand during the wedding season, hotels throughout India are anticipated to maintain the high booking trend of the New Year's Eve weekend. Despite the usual decline in leisure travel following the New Year, some tour operators have reported that the first two weeks of January have seen strong demand for hotel accommodation.

Rategain Travel Technologies Ltd, a provider of SaaS solutions to the hospitality and travel industries, reports that real hotel reservations kept up their New Year's Eve week momentum, with certain leisure towns witnessing an increase of as much as 80% in bookings throughout the course of the month. Rategain also reports that reservations in most major cities are up by as much as 44%.

Goa saw a 39 percent rise in validated hotel bookings for the month of January, from 1,604 rooms bought in the last week of December to 2,628 rooms booked in the first eight days of the new year (the time mapped by Rategain for data on its transactional customers). Bookings in other places, including Dehradun and Chandigarh, increased by nearly 60%, although from a lower starting point. There was a 32% increase in demand in Mumbai, and a 23% increase in demand in Delhi. But in Ahmedabad, it fell by 29%.

Kayak, a travel search site owned by Booking Holdings, saw an upsurge in ticket searches of about 12% for flights to Asia and 185% for internal return flights due to the Republic Day vacation. When compared to the same time in 2019, searches for long-haul foreign flights increased by almost 24 percent. Hotels in renowned tourist spots remain at or near 100% occupancy following the New Year's eve weekend, according to the travel agency Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.

Rajeev Kale, president and national head for vacations, MICE, Visa at Thomas Cook, stated:

“Tariffs continue to remain significantly high, and we expect this to continue with the long weekend coming up during Republic Day; additionally, this being the weddings and honeymoon season as well."

But the industry has witnessed a correction of 10-15% in flight reservations in various categories, notably in major cities, which has prompted numerous airlines to launch promotional specials. According to Ayyappan R., CEO of Flipkart-owned online tour operator Cleartrip, figures are 10% greater on flights as opposed to the same time in December, and roughly a 10-15% is the rise in reservations for hotels than what was recorded during the last month of 2022.

Rates and room availability at hotels in popular tourist destinations like Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, the Northeast, Rajasthan, Kerala, Goa, and the Andamans; as well as religious pilgrimage sites like Varanasi, Rishikesh, and Vaishno Devi, have not changed since New Year's Eve, according to SOTC Travel, a division of Thomas Cook (India).

Pinned-down demand and a constant desire to travel are reflected in these staggeringly high numbers. According to SOTC's president and country head for vacations, Daniel D'Souza, the average lodging prices for key leisure locations are on par with 2021 levels, which equals 50-100% above pre-pandemic values.

Source: livemint.com