Yatra.com has witnessed that the upcoming Independence Day long weekend has seen a surge of more than two-fold in bookings by travellers, as compared to the corresponding period last year. With Janmashtami and Independence Day falling consecutively on August 14th and 15th, travellers are finding this the perfect opportunity to take some time off. As per Yatra’s data, budget hotels continue to be the most popular category of accommodation for the upcoming weekends.
Yatra has seen some key trends in booking patterns for the upcoming long weekend:
Popular mini vacation destinations this year has been:
North: Jaipur, Varanasi, Amritsar, Shimla and Ladakh
South: Coorg, Kerala, Pondicherry, Ooty, Tirupati
East: Shillong, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Guwahati
West: Goa, Mahabaleshwar, Ahmedabad
International destinations: Dubai, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia
There has been a 90 per cent increase in the number of rooms booked for this period. 3 Star hotels have seen the maximum increase in bookings for the weekend. The tariffs for 5 star hotels have reduced compared to the same time last year which has led to a rise in bookings for this category. International air fares have witnessed a dip of six per cent compared to the corresponding weekend last year. Yatra has seen an increase in advance bookings for this period on account of frequent airline sales over the last couple of months. Expect a last minute dash for bookings basis last year’s trend, where 43 per cent of the bookings happened in the last two days.
Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C), Yatra.com said, “The trend of taking frequent breaks on long weekends has been growing over the past few years as people are looking for a quick, short respite from their monotonous urban lives. The upcoming long weekend has seen a huge surge in hotel bookings at destinations close to the metros, with a number of these being sold out already. We have also seen a tremendous pick up in holiday packages from all major cities. ”
