During 2022, I have travelled to places as diverse as Bangalore, Nagpur, Goa, New York and Dubai. I saw little evidence that a terrible pandemic had just abated, except for a few scattered masks. Virtually every flight I travelled by was full. All the hotels where I stayed said that they were fully occupied, or at very high levels of occupancy. Shopping malls were teeming with people.

When my daughter took me out for my birthday lunch at the delightful Sootr restaurant in the East Village in New York, the place was packed. When my wife and I went out for a meal at our favourite Oye Kake restaurant in Mumbai, it was the exact situation there too. We had to wait for a table.

Impact of multiple crises

What is happening here? The biggest single driver of consumer behaviour I have seen this year, particularly amongst the middle class and affluent people, has been the rush towards joyful experiences such as travel, vacations and shopping. Does this mean that the anxieties of the pandemic have been washed away so quickly and completely?

The answer is No. Those anxieties continue to be deep rooted in our minds. The desperate search for joy that we are witnessing is perhaps precisely because of the impact of the pandemic and so many other crises which have been coming at us over the past few years, one after another. We witnessed several waves of Covid-19, where many of us were faced with illnesses and deaths amongst our near and dear ones. During that time, millions of people were also impacted by the fear of losing jobs. Soon after the pandemic abated, inflation began rearing its ugly head. Interest rates have gone up. Now, we have the war between Ukraine and Russia and all the volatility that it continues to cause.

These multiple crises have led to people wanting to get away from it all and engage in experiences that bring them great personal joy. One reason for this has been pent-up demand, because none of us could travel out on holidays, go out to malls or visit our relatives for a long time. Call it what you will — revenge travel or retaliation shopping — the fact is that so many of us were all bottled up and feeling miserable about it. 2022 has been the year when we have joyfully uncorked that bottle. Happiness is a fundamental human desire and you cannot keep it away for long.

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Mortality and savings

Yet another reason is that the long pandemic brought us face to face with our mortality. We came to grips with the unfortunate reality that our lives are rather fragile and can be felled swiftly by even an invisible, microscopic virus. This tryst with mortality has accelerated our desire to pack in as many happy experiences as possible, now and in the near future, whilst we are still alive. If we already had a bucket list, we began looking at it far more often. A friend told me that the first thing she did as soon as international travel was permitted was to visit Norway to see the Northern Lights. This dream had been on her backburner, but now there was a new urgency to experience it as soon as possible.

The accelerated search for joy was also enabled by the financial savings of the pandemic, particularly for people with steady sources of income. For around two years, millions of people who have the disposable income did not spend on things such as commutes to office, vacations or travel to home town, restaurant meals, shopping for non-essential goods or big fat weddings. This resulted in a supernormal accumulation of household savings, which inevitably leads to a loosening of the purse strings. It is likely that this savings overhang will remain for a few years going forward.

The India factor

In India, all these factors have been further aided by the fact that our economy continues to be a bright spot in a challenging global situation. We continue to witness fairly good economic growth, albeit at levels that are lower than earlier projections. This has led to optimism about the future, and hence the willingness to spend for experiences that we greatly desire.

On that positive note, may I wish all readers a very joyous new year !

Harish Bhat is Brand Custodian, Tata Sons. These are his personal views.

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