Mahendra Vakharia

Director, Pathfinders Holidays

As expected, local and regional tourism has started and we are seeing bookings from clients for short breaks of 3-4 days to Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Mt. Abu since August. This will be the trend for the next couple of months and with more relaxation coming through lockdown 5.0 and more domestic flights operating in destinations such as Himachal, Uttarakhand, Goa and Kerala, the speed will also pick up. As far as the International sector is concerned, we are seeing enquiries and interest from clients wanting to visit the Maldives as it is one of the top leisure destinations that has opened up for Indian travellers. With more countries being included in the air bubble agreement such as Kenya, Japan, etc, we are expecting enquiries for holiday travel to these countries to start as well.

People are willing to travel and ready to travel surely. Whether you call it ‘Revenge Tourism’ or ‘Regular Tourism’, once the international flights are permitted to fly in and out from India, travel will start for sure. The new evolving travel trend is where the traveller is very keen to visit a less crowded place, stay at small boutique properties with a lesser inventory of rooms and employees, visit a place surrounded by nature, wildlife, etc. So we are constantly updating such data at our end and keeping it ready to offer to our clients.

One thing about COVID-19 is everyone including the traveller has become more mindful and aware of the necessity of SMS (Social distancing, Mask and Sanitisation.) This will help travellers opting to visit lesser-known but equally very beautiful destinations for holiday and indirectly helping over-tourism in popular destinations. It will bring many boutique small hotels at the forefront of choice of stay (of course, the ones following strict hygiene protocols) and traveller will prefer to stay at one place for a longer duration and enjoy the destination much more.