Bengaluru, December 17

India, which ranked last in weekly average recovery rate for hotel bookings among 16 tourism markets worldwide in the week ending August 9, has made a sharp recovery to fifth place in the week ending December 13, driven by optimistic domestic travellers. The top four markets are China, US, UAE and Mexico.

Hotel bookings surged from 20 per cent in the week ending August 9 to 47 per cent at present, sustained by demand for domestic travel, as per booking trends observed by RateGain, a travel and hospitality technology provider that works with 2.5 lakh hotels globally. RateGain has customers in 110 countries, including Marriott, Wyndham, Hyatt, Lemon Tree, Royal Orchid, and OYO.

This revival comes despite the absence of corporate, group and foreign bookings in December versus 28,000 average bookings/week registered last December.

Top destination

Goa, with 1,763 bookings, is the number 1 destination in December. The trend of last-minute bookings continues to hold with most people booking 8-14 days before the actual trip. These travellers prefer warmer destinations in South India such as Hampi, Mysuru, Pondicherry, and Thiruvananthapuram, which attracted 420, 54, 75 and 90 bookings.

Interestingly, after the UK rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine, RateGain saw an immediate uptick in last-minute bookings to holiday destinations such as Goa, Thiruvananthapuram, Udaipur, and Shimla, which contributed to further recovery. In a similar trend, RateGain, which processes over 50 million bookings annually, observed that they processed the highest daily bookings for the UK on December 8.

The company witnessed a sharp surge in November, when hotel bookings hit 82 per cent recovery, fuelled by the festival season demand aided by the long Diwali weekend, weddings, and news of Covid vaccines going into trials.

“With multiple vaccine candidates moving into the last phase of trials, we are seeing a surge in last-minute domestic bookings, driven by millennials who are looking at some time off, based entirely on optimism. While recovery is certain in the Indian market, hotels would have to lean on different strategies and solutions to make the most of these unplanned last-minute demand spikes in 2021,” said Kamesh Shukla, EVP and Head, APMEA, RateGain.

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