After a successful holiday season during Christmas and New Year, travel is booming again with the first long weekend of 2023, after Republic Day — soon approaching. Private tour operators reported at least 40% rise in advance bookings for the weekend while noticing a considerable increase in the inflow of tourists to Karnataka during the time in comparison with the same season last year.
While discovering previously unknown destinations was a major travel trend in the previous year after the pandemic, it seems to have made its way to this year’s itineraries too. “Isolationist travel is a concept that was gaining steam in 2022 but it may finally be unveiled at its full potential in 2023 when more people would choose undiscovered destinations which have the natural vista sans the commotion of massive crowds,” said Nishant Pitti, CEO and co-founder, EaseMyTrip.
He added, “Searches for domestic flights around Republic Day increased by more than 185% this year when compared with the same time pre-pandemic, suggesting that the long weekend provides a strong reason for travellers to go out.”
Mumbai, Delhi, Andaman, Puducherry, Tirupati, Rameswaram, and Mahabalipuram seem to be the top destinations preferred by travellers of Karnataka for the long weekend. There is also an uptick in the number of tourists wanting to travel to religious destinations. Post Christmas, we have witnessed significant inquiries and bookings for religious destinations,” said Aditya Gupta, senior vice-president – Hotels, Yatra Online Ltd. He also said that there was a 50% increase in queries for hotel bookings and 20–25% increase in flight booking queries from the State.
While last year was mostly characterised by international travel, this year has started with more interest in domestic travel, which has reflected in an increase in train bookings for the upcoming long weekend. “Outbound travel from Bengaluru to tourist destinations such as Visakhapatnam, Goa, Tirupati, Mysuru, and Coimbatore are seeing notably high train travel demand,” said Sripad Vaidya, co-founder and COO, ConfirmTkt.
As always, within the State, Kodagu, Mysuru, Kabini, Hampi, Chikkamagaluru, and Badami are the preferred destinations among travellers from other States.
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