Holidays bring cheer to travel and tourism sector

Christmas and New Year holidays have come as a bright streak in an otherwise bleak landscape for the travel and tourism sector as
leisure travel has increased in spite of the economic slowdown.

Though there is a general slump in the business, inbound and outbound leisure tourist movement is slowly picking up. The number of bookings for leisure travel to destinations abroad as well as within the country have increased this month as compared to last month, said industry sources.

The domestic tourist traffic has also improved for this month end because several people who used to travel abroad have switched to destinations in Kerala.

However, the numbers are not as good as it used to be last year. "But still this brings hope for the sector," says Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) president Basheer Ahemed.

He said, "Christmas and New Year have brought a little hope for us. We have received several bookings from people who want to travel to Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong in the coming weeks. Thailand was popular but some people hesitate to go there because of the current political unrest in the country, he added.

The flights to Singapore and other south-east Asian countries are full till the first week of January. Even Dubai is a popular destination. Cathay Pacific has come out with interesting packages while Malaysian Tourism is offering incentives to travel agents to lure more travellers during the holiday season.

Basheer said there were more inbound travellers from Singapore as it is holiday time there. "The situation is not as buoyant as it used to be last year. But it is improving."

Cleartrip vice president Tarique Khatri said, "There is a 20% increase in the online travel bookings this month when compared to November. Majority of the people are preferring domestic destinations. So, December is not as badly hit as was the case during the meltdown.

Nevertheless, several travellers are preferring domestic destinations. Hi tours has received a few last minute enquiries and bookings for this week.

"We are getting good bookings for the domestic sector. Kerala is so popular that there is a shortage of rooms in the state," an officials of the company said.

Inbound travellers have not cancelled their plans for Christmas and New Year holidays here.

"We do not have any cancellations so far from tourists from Europe and North America. The slowdown impact is yet to show while the Mumbai attacks have not affected us adversely," said Hi Tours managing director Sethuraman.
Source:indiatimes