Domestic travel booms owing to long I-Day weekend
With Krishna Janmashtami also falling on August 16, both to and fro travel from Bengaluru has increased.
'The extended weekend is driving a substantial increase in travel from Bengaluru with demand for flights, hotels, and holiday packages noticeably higher than last year. There is a clear preference for bookings to popular and easily accessible getaway destinations such as Goa, which have jumped by more than 80%. The increased demand on key routes to Mumbai and New Delhi has pushed fares higher during peak hours,' said Rikant Pittie, CEO and co-founder of EaseMyTrip.
A few others have also been opting for destinations in Karnataka which can be reached in a few hours owing to the limited time that the weekend offers. 'Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru, which are the usual favourites during monsoon are gaining traction with many looking to book properties there while we have seen a slight increase in arrivals to Bengaluru too. As North Karnataka is too hot to travel during summer, we have seen a little bit of demand to destinations like Hampi over this weekend,' said Prathap Gowda, manager at a private tour organising agency.
Puducherry, Kerala, and Hyderabad have also attracted many bookings from travellers from the city.
According to PeekABoo, Cleartrip's travel trends tracker, popular air routes to/from Bengaluru are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Goa, Pune, Hyderabad, Varanasi, and Jaipur among others. Similarly, popular bus routes include Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Vijayawada, and Pune. It has also noted that there has been a 60% increase in bookings for hotels in Bengaluru.
'Many people could not travel to their hometowns last weekend during Raksha Bandhan as the demand was high and the fares were higher. Since people believe that they can tie rakhis throughout the month, they are using this long weekend as an opportunity to travel back home and also spend a little time there,' Mr. Gowda noted.
Despite the increased demand, fares continue to be stable across multiple modes of transport. 'I am travelling to Delhi this weekend to belatedly celebrate Raksha Bandhan. I had expected the flight tickets to be expensive than usual due to the long weekend. But it was only ₹1,500 more than usual, which is not a significant amount,' said Riya Jadhav, a bank employee who resides in the city.
International destinations like Kuala Lumpur, Bali, Don Mueang, Bangkok etc. which can be covered in a shorter period have also been preferred.
The long weekend also led to traffic snarls on Wednesday evening in places like Silk Board and Hebbal which connects the city with highways.
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