Travelling is a natural human instinct. The pandemic suppressed it for a long time, however, today, with mass vaccination drives taking place across the country, traveller confidence to step out while taking precautions and explore domestic destinations is strengthening. Over the past year, with every unlocking, consumer aspirations to travel locally have seen a visible increase. The coming long weekend for Janmashtami is the first since the relaxation of restrictions across India. As per OYO’s August 2021 booking data for 27th – 30th August 2021, the global travel technology company has witnessed a 34 per cent surge in leisure travel across the country.
OYO’s booking trends reveal that Jaipur, Goa, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Udaipur topped India’s most popular leisure destinations among travellers this long weekend. The majority of the demand stemmed from travellers based in the metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. Among business destinations, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Mumbai emerged as the most booked cities.
On the occasion of Janmashtami, OYO has also observed a surge in booking enquiries for religious destinations such as Mathura and Vrindavan, with majority bookings from travellers based in Delhi NCR, Lucknow, Agra, followed by Prayagraj and Patna. This indicates festive cheer brought in by the rising demand by pilgrims, who are keen to visit the historic temples of the city. OYO’s booking trends reveal that travellers opted for stays across OYO brands of Capital O, Collection O, OYO Townhouse, followed by homestays. With more people stepping out to spend quality time with friends and family, we can expect a similar increase in demand for alternative accommodation options such as cottages, homestays among others during the festive season of 2021. OYO also revealed that Indians are opting for shorter stays of 1-2 days. Be it roadtrips, staycations, or workcations, Indians have masked on, carried tons of sanitiser and gloves and figured the safest ways to relax and rejuvenate by going local.
“Travel aspirations are growing and people are now looking forward to exploring exciting local hidden gems, either within the city or through roadtrips. In India, for the first upcoming long weekend of Janmashtami since the relaxation of restrictions, we have seen an uptick in demand for local travel, wherein consumers are choosing destinations closer to their location or heading to religious cities like Mathura and Vrindavan. We at OYO, have rolled out several COVID-19 appropriate protocols and initiatives such as VaccinAid, Contactless Check-ins, Sanitised Before Your Eyes to give travellers the confidence to stay comfortably and without any worries,” said Yatish Jain, VP & Chief Growth Officer, OYO INSEA
This year, OYO rolled out VaccinAid, a vaccine visibility initiative to drive awareness and social reinforcement among small and medium hotels and homes to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Today, nearly 4500+ hotels and homes have the VaccinAid tag. Overall, VaccinAid properties clock in higher occupancy, and a 150 per cent RevPAR compared to non-VaccinAid properties.
