Rajeev Kale, President and Country Head – Holiday, MICE, Visa, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd talks of holidaying trends ahead of this Diwali…
Festive tourism is becoming a key holiday driver for Thomas Cook India and with multiple holidays around Diwali, such as Laxmi Puja, Bhai Dooj, Govardhan Puja, travellers are maximising this opportunity to satiate their hunger for travel. Thomas Cook India has observed that consumers are smartly extending their holidays into mini-vacations of 6 days by taking an additional day off from work (Friday or Wednesday) with demand for domestic destinations like Goa, Hampi, Darjeeling, Manali, Shimla, Coorg, Ooty, Udaipur witnessing strong interest.
Indians are increasingly opting for short haul visa on arrival or easy visa destinations like Thailand, Bali, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, during this Diwali break. What is noteworthy is the demand witnessed for Central & Eastern European destinations like Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia to witness the changing colours of Autumn largely by the family segment to capitalize on the Diwali school vacations. Being off-season, travel during this period offers significant savings and ensure great value for money.
Rajeev Kale
Interestingly, cruises too have seen a 12-15% growth in demand this Diwali from Indians seeking to explore domestic India, Mediterranean as well as South East Asian destinations on a cruise liner. Southern hemisphere destinations are also seeing an uptake in demand as travellers plan to leverage pleasant weather in destinations like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America.
While Thomas Cook India’s data indicates 10% growth in demand for outdoor and adventure travel to destinations like Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Egypt and Greece to escape the seasonal rush, adhoc groups of family and friends are choosing destinations like Dubai and Singapore for their unique local festivities and light-ups during their celebration of ‘Deepavali’.
We have observed that while the work-weary metro traveller continues to drive demand, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities/towns like Jalgaon, Patna, Jalandhar, Karnal, Kozhikode, Raipur and Rajkot are indicating a growth in demand of approx. 15% serving as key source markets for the respective states this Festive season.
Thomas Cook India has further introduced a range of specially curated regional and international packages, to help create a travel experience for Diwali that is both unique and experiential. As a special add on, delicacies like laddo and jalebis are served on tour for customers to make the best of the festivities.
(As told to RiaanTV)
