As the last three months of a year form the peak season for travel and leisure holidays, the country will also witness room rates rising by 10 per cent and airlines doubling fares on popular routes.
Popular doesn't always mean best. Here's why.
India's unemployment rose to a three-month high in March to 7.8 per cent as the country's labour markets deteriorated, according to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). Unemployment rate in the country surged in December 2022 to 8.30 per cent but declined in January to 7.14 per cent. It edged up again in February to 7.45 per cent, the CMIE data released on Saturday showed. During March, the unemployment rate in urban areas was at 8.4 per cent while in the rural areas it was at 7.5 per cent.
Holidayers' plans have gone topsy-turvy of late and the options have got limited.
Indian traveller is no longer satisfied with a single annual vacation, but is increasingly demanding multiple holidays and festive breaks offer an ideal opportunity.
Yatra sees 15-20% cancellations in confirmed bookings to France.
The new-age traveler is no longer into ticking a checklist of must-see spots on his holiday. He is ready to pay a premium to experience culture, crafts and culinary delights of the local populace
A foreign holiday has now become non-negotiable for Indian consumers.
After a better-than-expected Dussehra weekend, hospitality firms are hopeful of ending the year on a positive note by doing good business over Christmas and the New Year. Typically, year-end bookings kick in two to four weeks before the season begins. Owing to pandemic-related uncertainties, hotels are seeing a significant reduction in the booking window, with travellers waiting till the last minute to make hotel reservations.
'Consumers are willing to increase travel spends by 20-30 per cent versus pre-pandemic.'
Hotel companies, which have experienced substantial share price gains in the past six months, are not only expected to post robust revenue growth in the seasonally weak July-September quarter (second quarter, or Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24), with the trend continuing in the second half (H2) of FY24, but according to some analysts, they will also benefit from a structural uptrend in progress. To begin with, larger players in the listed hotel sector are expected to report strong growth in Q2 compared to the year-ago quarter. Led by higher demand from the business segment, the sector is expected to achieve a growth rate of 15-30 per cent.
After years of being sequestered by the pandemic, some intrepid travellers are planning to settle their score with the novel coronavirus. With fewer or no travel curbs, they are eager to get back on the road, again. Hotels and tour operators, too, are eager to shed excess Covid baggage. And this year's Diwali promises to add that extra layer sparkle with the introduction of new flights.
A travel insurance plan can help protect your dream holiday from turning into a nightmare.
Some airline sources, however, fear it will reduce overall yields
Online travel portals have seen a surge in bookings aided by several rounds of discount offers and a strong demand over the festival weekend.
Tourist arrival growth down to 1.9% over poor marketing and terror threats. Airlines, too, have been forced to reroute following airspace closure. UK and Australia advised their citizens from travelling to Srinagar following the Pulwama attack.
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Rating agencies Crisil and Icra on Monday revised down their India growth projections for the current fiscal and the second quarter mainly due to the ripple effect of slowdown in global growth and mixed crop output. Crisil downgraded the India growth forecast by 30 bps to 7 per cent while Icra pegged the economic expansion at 6.5 per cent for the second quarter of FY2022-23. "We have revised down our forecast for real gross domestic product growth to 7 per cent for fiscal 2023 from 7.3 per cent, primarily because of the slowdown in global growth that has started to impact our exports and industrial activity.
Indians are becoming much more spendy and discerning travellers and look for places that can offer them a 'new' kind of experience.
Consumption-related stocks, such as hotels, and quick service restaurants (QSRs), have been hitting the ball out of the park ahead. On the other hand, the Miss World Pageant scheduled for later this year in New Delhi, too, could provide some tailwind to these stocks, especially hotels and aviation. However, analysts suggest investors put their best foot forward and buy these counters only on a decline given the recent rally and economic headwinds.
Finland's flag carrier Finnair on Friday said it will connect Helsinki with India's financial capital Mumbai with a direct flight, starting July this year. Mumbai will be the airline's second destination in India after Delhi, where it has been flying since 2006. The to-be launched flight on Mumbai-Helsinki and vice versa will be open for bookings from April 5 onward, Finnair said in a statement.
Diversified entity ITC Ltd on Monday said it will demerge its hotels business by incorporating wholly-owned subsidiary ITC Hotels Ltd, paving way to attract appropriate investors and strategic partners. With the company's hotels business maturing over the years, the company said the vertical is ready to chart its own growth path as a separate entity in the fast-growing hospitality industry. "The Board of Directors of ITC Ltd at its meeting held on July 24, 2023, evaluated and discussed various alternative structures for the hotels business.
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The government on Friday announced that no tax will be charged on overseas spending of up to Rs 7 lakh in a year using debit or credit as it looked to douse backlash from its earlier decision of levying TCS on all spending. The government had earlier this week brought overseas credit card spending under Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS). This meant that any spending using credit cards overseas would attract a 20 per cent tax from July 1.
In December, over 1.7 million people have checked in over the weekends.
By 2023, Vistara's hangars will house a total of 70 aircraft, up from the current 42.
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The move to demerge the hotel business into a separate entity by ITC has brought back focus on hotel stocks, which have already seen a good run thus far in fiscal 2023-24 (FY24). Analysts believe there could be more gains in store over the next one year for the stocks in this sector, but suggest investors put in money on a correction only from a long-term perspective. Hotel stocks, according to A K Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital, have seen a good run as travel picked up post Covid in India. Not only have the room rents increased, the occupancy, too, has surged.
Hotels are using a combination of platforms to reach out to the guests. These include online travel agents among others. hotels in India are offering guests an option to pay now and stay later.
An overwhelming majority of Indians (84 per cent) feel it is safe to return to their workplaces, according to a Deloitte survey that suggests consumers in India are showing a positive spending intent and brighter outlook towards the future. The latest monthly analysis (wave 220) of Deloitte's Global State of the Consumer Tracker, signals a cautious consumption revival in the country, aided by the decreasing number of Covid-19 cases and an improved vaccination drive. The Global State of the Consumer Tracker is an online survey based on responses from 1,000 people each in 18 countries including India.
In its latest transition, the company will also double up as an investment vehicle.
Thomas Cook India's internal data had highlighted Lucknow region as a high potential source market for holiday business.
India needs 1.4 million hotel beds a night but has only 2.4 lakh, points out Rahul Pandit, MD and CEO of Ginger Hotels.
There they were, showing the world that there are still people motivated not by religious structures, not by past glories, not by hatreds deliberately stoked. These were ordinary folks doing something extraordinary purely because they think that effort might shake a nation out of a spiralling miasma of division, mistrust, cynicism, sophistry and violence.
Travel restrictions are in place only for a limited number of countries but people are cancelling or postponing travel to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
''The reason I have kept quiet is because all this tamasha will somewhere be read by my small children.'
Low-cost carrier IndiGo, too, has slashed fares to match Air India's levels, but has not announced any scheme.
These measures are part of initiatives by these nations to attract Indian tourists, says Aneesh Phadnis.
Sources at Mumbai airport said seat occupancy has declined from around 70-72 per cent to 60-64 per cent in last three-four days as passengers are postponing or cancelling trips.
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