It’s the truth and here are the figures to prove it!
Compared to what it was in 2019, the price of flight tickets has shot up by at least 66% on domestic routes and by about 23% on international routes and it's no exaggeration.
Indians have been bogged down by the pandemic for far too long and now they have unleashed their inner globetrotter. Research conducted by the American travel search engine KAYAK, which is owned and operated by Booking Holdings, mentioned that the average cost of a return economy domestic flight for 2023 will be around INR 13,783, and for an international return trip for economy flight will be around INR 85,631.
Elia San Martin, Vice President & General Manager of KAYAK’s Asia Pacific region, told Mint that a survey involving 1,900 people of India was conducted. This survey was conducted by KAYAK in partnership with YouGov.
The results they found revealed the reasons for this sudden surge. Can you guess what it might be? It is the travel restrictions that resulted from the pandemic that has contributed to the rise in for this yearn for travel. She added that more than 75% of those who engaged in the survey were looking forward to travelling in 2023.
Why Is The Indian Market Important?
As per Elia San Martin, India housing the largest population of youngsters in the world is one of the several factors that is considered when the future of travel is accounted. Places like Delhi and Mumbai are hubs of travel and with the younger generation wanting to explore everything new, the prospect of travel becomes enormous.
In fact, the company found that overall flight searches from airports in India shot up 204% between April and November 2022, for those who were looking to travel in 2023 as compared to 2019. On the other hand, searches for international flights, during this time increased by about 168% and domestic flights searches increased by about 257%.
The Law of Supply and Demand
Following “The Law of Supply and Demand”, the demand for hotels have led to the increase of hotel tariffs as well. A 3–4-star hotel price internationally for a one-night double room has increased by about 20% on average compared to 2019 for Indian users while the price of domestic hotel rooms has increased by 24% on average.
Despite the fact that US$ has been steadily going up and the Indian Rupee is falling, when it comes to 2023 holidays, Indian travellers are not deterred by inflating flight or hotel prices. She further added that international and domestic hotel searches by Indian travellers had also increased by about 82% and 54% respectively as compared to 2019.
"While nearly half of those surveyed plan to spend more money or the same for their travels than pre-pandemic, value for money supersedes all other factors when it comes to the Indian traveller. Over 60% of the surveyed Indian travellers count it as their top consideration for booking flights and hotels," she said.
According to the survey, close to 80% are contemplating to spend around INR 4 lakh or less for travel in the year 2023. And nearly 62% chose 'exploring the world' as the main reason for the regained desire to travel.
Pandemic has changed the face of travel. And so has the mentality of travellers. From random, quick getaways, it has changed to slow, meaningful sustainable travel to a lot of globetrotters. With the changing face of travel, being cooped up in homes for the longest time, people are eager to catch up on all they missed in those two years and to make up for lost time, they are eager to restart their travel stories. While this will be a blessing for the travel and tourism industry, it is yet to be discerned how it will impact the sustainable means of travel.
Only time will tell!
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