Half the people still plan to travel during summer: survey

A new survey has found that 50% people in India still plan to travel during the upcoming summer holidays even as COVID-19 cases in India are increasing at a significant pace.

“The findings of the survey indicate that 50% of citizens still plan to travel during the months of April – June 2021. Since many of them have already booked their travel and are unable to cancel unless service providers like airlines, hotels travel portals and agents co-operate, the risk of COVID further worsening in India is significant,” according to LocalCircles.

The survey was conducted in the last three days of March and saw 25,000 responses from citizens located in 305 districts of India.

Of these 50%, while 17% said they would be travelling to ‘holiday destinations,’ 24% said they will ‘visit family and friends,’ and 9% said they plan to do both. The majority of 45% of citizens said that they “will not be travelling, and would be staying home.”

“...if we are to comparatively look into the travel plans of citizens for the summer, the percentage of citizens saying they ‘will not be travelling and staying home’ has increased from 29% in February 2021 survey to 45% in the current survey,” LocalCircles said in a statement.

When citizens, who are planning to travel this summer, were asked if they have made bookings, 25% answered in the affirmative, while 12% said that they will book soon.