Thomas Cook (India) Limited and its Group Company, SOTC Travel, latest insights on domestic tourism.
Key trends include:
Top destinations in demand
- Kashmir: 30%
- North East: 26%
- Andaman: 22%
- Kerala: 20%
- Goa: 20%
Spiritual Tourism seeing surge of over 45% vs pre-pandemic
- Traditionally, a favorite of seniors, spiritual tourism is witnessing strong uptick from younger travellers: working professionals, millennials and GenZ; growth of younger segment is up by 75%
- High demand for unique local experiences coupled with darshans, such as cuisine trails and outdoor/adventure
- Thomas Cook and SOTC’s newly launched aerial darshans (Dev Bhoomi – Om Parvat) were sold-out early this summer. Forward booking pipeline robust for winter tours to Char Dham, Varanasi, Ayodha, Jagananth, Rameshwaram, Tirupathi, etc
Shifts in traveller preferences
- Increase in spends: 15% YoY
- Increase in longer stays: 20% YoY
- Increase in multiple holidays per year: 2-3 shorter holidays in addition to longer vacations
- Impulse bookings on the rise for weekenders/mini-cations
- Increased demand for in-hotel amenities such as fine dining, spa and wellness services, and clubs facilities
Favourite summer locales
- Leh-Ladakh and cooler climes of Gangtok, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Munnar, Ooty, Coorg
- Kashmir maintains its year-round appeal
New emerging locales
- North East India’s Seven Sisters, Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh’s Kargil for a unique blend of natural beauty, cultural richness, and adventure
- Growing demand for experiential travel
Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head – Holidays, MICE, Visa, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd said, “Domestic tourism has been powering our growth trajectory this summer. What is noteworthy is that we have achieved both our top-line and passenger numbers of 12 months of 2023, within the first six months of 2024.Indians are displaying keen appetite to explore their own country and we are witnessing exponential demand for multiple domestic trips – Young India’s working professionals and DINKs are opting for multiple mini-cations, combining public holidays with weekends for short getaways, in addition to longer domestic vacations lasting 15 days.”
Daniel D’souza, President & Country Head, Leisure, SOTC Travel said, “”We are excited to share our delivery on our Domestic business: we have achieved our 2023 business numbers within just six months of 2024! Our strategy to motivate Indians to explore our own country is clearly working very well and this is a great motivation for our Teams. India offers an incredible diversity of hidden gems and exceptional experiences, and our data trends reveal that Indians are actively exploring them. We are bullish on India’s Domestic segment and at SOTC we are ready to set new goals for the next six months and year ahead.”
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