Vivek Pandey
President, TTAUP and Associate Director, Ebix Travels
The new booking trend witnessed is the short-haul domestic road travel (within 800 km from the base station) with an average length of stay between 3 to 5 days, preferably at one place or maximum at two places split stay to minimize a repeated check-in / check-out. Boutique or small luxury hotel or independent villa stays are in demand. Interest in nature holidays, village tourism, pilgrimage and religious tourism, bird watching tourism, community-based tourism is also observed. Last but not least all travellers are now specifically concerned to ensure about COVID-19 safety and regulation protocols while selecting any destination or stay option. Charter plane requirements are also in demand now. From October 2020, queries regarding Goa, Dubai, Maldives, Mauritius, and Singapore are also observed for November and December 2020 travelling.
In light of COVID-19, many people had to cancel travel plans as far as revenge tourism phase one is concerned. Travellers are opting for short-haul trips and this may lead to the second wave of ‘revenge travel’ but in my personal opinion, the bounce back purely depends upon the new way of people travelling, and how hotels, airlines, etc. are prepared to welcome Leisure & MICE travellers. Thus, revenge tourism as of now may be treated as a ray of hope for the industry but will not provide support for revenue associated bounce back.
We also need to target a new segment of Generation Z travellers who are more racially and ethnically diverse than the previous generation, and they are on track to be the most welleducated generation yet. Online booking through third-party OTAs will be now avoided by all travellers especially by those who had faced a no revert or unsatisfactory clarification.
Lack of updates and blocked refund trauma during cancellation of trips due to COVID-19 of travellers may be an opportunity for offline travel agents and direct online booking sources as a business growth antidote for post COVID-19 era.