Ashish Dhariwal and his family are enjoying this summer amid the picturesque Mount Titlis in Switzerland. “This indeed is heaven on earth. It is no doubt the new holiday destination for Indians,” he says and adds that 90% of the tourists there are Indians.
Siddharth Marupeddi enjoyed a premium ferry ride from Singapore to the Indonesian island of Batam as part of his summer travel itinerary this month. Similarly, Bina Rao is gearing up for her 19-day American vacation that includes a Bahamas cruise holiday.
Notwithstanding the industry apprehension due to demonetisation and the revision in service tax earlier this year that made holiday packages costlier, vacationers from the Port City are going all out to explore new destinations overseas this summer.
From Caribbean cruise holidays to skiing in the Swiss Alps and stepping into a rich heritage trail in Russia, tour operators from the city have seen a different pattern emerging this summer with an increase in overseas travel bookings for many new destinations.
According to Thomas Cook India, there is strong uptake for long-haul destinations like Europe, Canada, U.S. and Australia.
The travel company— which recently expanded its international footprint by acquiring tourism firm Kuoni’s global network of destination-management specialists in 17 countries—is upbeat on its growth in outbound tours from tier-2 cities like Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada.
“In terms of percentage growth for overseas travel bookings, our Thomas Cook Vizag leisure business has registered an impressive growth of over 20% in international holiday bookings, while Thomas Cook Vijayawada continues to grow at 30 % for summer 2017 as against the same period last year,” Rajeev Kale, president and country head (Leisure Travel, MICE) Thomas Cook India, told The Hindu .
A noteworthy trend observed by the Visakhapatnam branch of the travel firm is that people are opting for longer vacations this summer, from 10 days to 20 days, with tour package price per passenger starting from ₹1 lakh.
“Interestingly, we are witnessing strong consumer preference for cruise holidays across our family segment and ad hoc group segment of friends and family,” Mr Kale added.
SOTC has also registered a YoY growth in international summer holidays booking of about 20 % from Vizag and 30 % from Vijayawada.
Corroborating with the outbound trends seen from the city, Vijay Mohan, president of Tours and Travel Association of A.P., said there had been a strong demand for Russian holidays this summer, despite the destination being in the high-price category. “We did over 200 bookings for Russia alone in April-May as against an average of 50 bookings last summer,” he said.
Family vacationers from the city also took up the Caribbean cruise itinerary in April, a product which was not known till last year, Mr. Mohan added. Tour operators and travel agencies are expecting overseas bookings to grow further with fare sales introduced by airlines and direct connectivity from Vizag to new destinations like Colombo by Sri Lankan Airlines from July.
