Vineet Srivastava

Managing Director,Yorker Holidays Services

With the varied and multiple travel restrictions during these COVID times combined with expensive airfares due to limited flight connectivity, the consumer was looking for convenience, cost, and safety. These factors instilled the immediate demand to look at self-drive destinations around your city of residence or exotic destinations within the country. The other options were short-haul international destinations that instilled confidence and safety and did not burn a hole in your pocket. So, we saw a rush for these destinations, and this also highlights the fact that domestic tourism offers enough scope, and there is an immediate need to develop and upgrade infrastructure in these destinations as they will prove to be sound investments both for now and the future, sustaining domestic demand and encouraging development.

During COVID, we did good business within India; Goa, Kashmir and Leh Ladakh generated high demand. Internationally, Maldives and Dubai kept us busy. So, unless the lurking shadow of COVID passes over completely, airfares become more affordable, and travel restrictions are eased, the traveller will continue to be cautious. There will definitely be leisure travel happening, but domestic and short-haul international destinations will call the shots. Due to proximity with Delhi and easy access via superhighways, Uttar Pradesh holds promise, and we are soon launching a Ramayana Circuit based on UP destinations very soon.

Yorker Holidays Services is a B2B-focused wholesale travel organisation with a specialisation in sales representation for exclusive travel products. Offering a bouquet of international and domestic travel-related products and services, such as cruises, hotels, sightseeing, transfers, coach tours, international rail ticketing, visas, and travel insurance, they bring huge value to the agent’s business. Their outbound destinations include Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Dubai, and the Maldives.