Diwali: Stay home and travel

More Indian travellers booked domestic destinations during the Diwali festival, but for those who opted for overseas holidays Singapore, United Emirates, Thailand and the Maldives were top choices.
Over the last two months, online travel meta-search site Wego has recorded a spike in searches for travel within India for the country’s major festival period of Diwali that starts today and ends 7 November.
A surge in demand for domestic destinations, at almost 98% of overall traffic to the site, shows a significant shift from searches compared to last year.
Another interesting trend was shorter lead time for searches with far more last-minute searches compared to last year.
Last year, the searches peaked at least a month before Diwali, while this year travellers delayed until the last couple of weeks before considering their options.
“It’s quite possible that the weakening rupee has made many travellers decide to travel more within the country and get the greatest value from their travel budget,” commented Wego India’s managing director Jackson Fernandez.
“Last minute searches could also indicate a desire to secure the best travel offers which are often announced closer to the holiday season. We’ve also experienced a hike in airfares which could also have made an impact on airline travel,” he added.
The overall low number of domestic flight searches compared to the volume of domestic hotel clicks suggests that travellers are opting for destinations closer to home and using alternative transport. The most popular destinations recorded at Wego were Goa, Shimla, Gangtok, Ooty and Munnar.
Internationally, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates topped the popularity list, followed by Thailand and the Maldives.
“Many travellers may have taken advantage of early-bird discounts and package offers for the international destinations or could quite possibly be visiting family who are working, especially in the UAE or Singapore,” said Fernandez.
Wego.com is a leading travel search engine across the Asia-Pacific and Middle East. It claims to show users an unbiased and channel neutral view of travel prices, providing a choice of booking direct with a hotel or airline, or via an online travel agent or aggregator. (PRnewswire).

Sourced: ttrweekly