Independence Day, despite falling on a Saturday, is still pushing up booking and travel demand year-on-year across platforms and hotel companies for the weekend, even spilling over to the first half of the next week, said industry watchers.
Sudeep Jain, managing director, South West Asia, IHG Hotels & Resorts, said that bookings are higher by 16 to 20 per cent year-on-year, as tourists are making bookings closer to the date of travel. “A distinct trend this year is the shorter booking window, with travellers planning closer to the date, which is consistent with what we typically observe around long weekends,” he said.
Jain added that currently the group’s city hotels are leading demand, but resorts and leisure destinations are expected to pick up pace as the weekend approaches.
Rajiv Mehta, general secretary of the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH), on the other hand, said that he anticipates that hotel bookings could go up by 15 to 20 per cent, as tourists head to nearby travel destinations. “The weekend around Independence Day has become big from a tourism and hospitality point of view,” he said.
“Even if this Independence Day has fallen on a Saturday, people have still taken to travelling to the nearest tourist spots,” Mehta said, adding that while people in the National Capital Region head out to Uttarakhand, Himachal or Jaipur, all drivable distances, a similar trend is also being observed in southern and western India.
Cleartrip’s PeekABoo Trends Tracker reflected a sharp surge in last-minute travel bookings, in line with Mehta’s comments. The tracker showed that 72 per cent of bookings were made in the four days prior to Independence Day, suggesting a preference for spontaneous, short stays.
Younger travellers, or Gen Z, in the 25–34 age group accounted for 23 per cent of bus bookings and 32 per cent of air bookings, driving travel demand, according to the tracker. The tracker also showed that hotel bookings rose by 21 per cent week-on-week.
“The trends point to younger travellers making the most of the weekend through quick, flexible and often last-minute trips, with buses emerging as a particularly strong choice for these getaways,” Cleartrip said.
Among cities, Delhi emerged as a key market for the weekend, recording a 53 per cent increase in bus bookings and a 9 per cent rise in hotel bookings, as per the tracker.
Meanwhile, online travel portal MakeMyTrip on Friday announced a partnership with the Ministry of Tourism to launch guided tours led by local experts in over 60 cities, with bookings set to start on Independence Day. The travel portal expects that the partnership will help Indian tourists explore “Incredible India” by enabling them to book local guides in advance.