3 months ago
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Republic Day's agelong play has fuelled a surge successful abbreviated "minication" trips, with travellers favouring adjacent metro getaways, adjacent arsenic Goa remained the apical home choice, according to question experts.
"The appetite for play question remains strong, with the extended Republic Day play presenting an accidental for travel. There is simply a penchant for adjacent destinations, evident successful the apical question choices from each metro," MakeMyTrip co-founder and Group CEO Rajesh Magow said.
However, Goa continues to stay the favourite leisure destination wrong India and internationally, the skew towards easy-visa destinations continues to summation traction, helium stated.
"Countries with nonstop connectivity to aggregate cities person led demand, with Thailand astatine the forefront and Vietnam besides performed strongly," helium added.
Echoing the view, Thomas Cook (India) president and state head, Holidays, MICE and Visa, Rajeev Kale said, the Republic Day agelong play offered travel-hungry Indians a invited interruption via a 4-day 'minication'.
"We person witnessed an accrued question intent for some home and closer-to-home locales. Destinations similar Rajasthan, Andamans, Kerala, besides Bhutan and Sri Lanka successful the Indian subcontinent, Dubai-Abu Dhabi, Oman, Maldives, Mauritius, Central Asia's Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, caller emerging land destinations specified arsenic Sabah [Malaysia], Cebu and Boracay [Philippines], Sa Pa and Phu Quoc [Vietnam] person gained interest," helium said.
Mr. Kale said that multigenerational families, young India’s millennials and GenZ and young professionals besides looked astatine drivecations to adjacent offbeat destinations specified arsenic Panchgani, Mahabaleshwar, Lonavala, Coorg, Ooty, Munnar, Wayanad and more.
Meanwhile, Cox & Kings manager Karan Agarwal said, based connected interior booking trends, the institution has recorded a astir 20% summation successful bookings for the 26 January agelong play compared to a regular January weekend, with travellers readying earlier and opting for structured itineraries that acceptable into tighter enactment schedules.
"Long weekends similar Republic Day person go intentional question moments alternatively than impulsive breaks. Travellers are readying smarter, choosing destinations that let them to genuinely power off, and valuing curated experiences that region the accent from abbreviated holidays," helium said.
Domestic travel, helium said, continued to pb long-weekend demand, contributing to astir two-thirds of full bookings.
The information besides pointed to a alteration successful traveller profiles arsenic bookings from firm professionals successful the 25-45 property radical person gone up notably, alongside accrued request from household and multi-generational travellers.
Cleartrip main maturation and concern serviceman Manjari Singal said, "We saw beardown maturation successful bookings during the New Year 2025, and that maturation momentum has carried into the Republic Day agelong weekend. Early trends successful 2026 amusement bookings connected Cleartrip already exceeding some past year's NYE and Republic Day periods, signalling a wide displacement towards abbreviated breaks and stay-led trips.
She said, Gen Z drove this surge, with wide question up by implicit 20% YoY.
International aerial question has seen peculiarly beardown traction, with bookings increasing 73% arsenic younger travellers progressively opt for planetary experiences, she said.
"Short-haul question is besides performing strongly, with autobus bookings connected Cleartrip up 1.5x YoY. High-demand metro routes similar Bengaluru-Hyderabad and Bengaluru-Chennai continued to lead, alongside fashionable leisure destinations specified arsenic Goa, Pondicherry, Ooty and Manali," she added.
SOTC question president and state head, holidays and firm tours, S.D. Nandakumar said, interestingly, the institution witnessed request for non-standard question experiences and unconventional options similar stays successful machans/tree houses overlooking lush greenish tropical vegetation of Wayanad, Chikmagalur, Munnar, Thekkady, restored practice fort successful Goa, backstage villas with concierge services and a cook successful Alibaug oregon plantation bungalows amidst rolling tea/coffee estates successful Darjeeling, Assam oregon Coorg.
Indians besides travelled to visa free/easy visa abbreviated haul outbound destinations similar Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, helium said.
Notably, spiritual tourism is connected the emergence arsenic customers travelled to spiritual hubs similar Ayodhya, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Bodh Gaya, Mathura-Vrindavan, Rishikesh-Haridwar and confederate Indian circuits similar Tirupati, Rameshwaram, Kanchipuram and Ramayana Trails successful Sri Lanka, helium stated.
"What is peculiarly encouraging is the displacement successful request from simply metro cities to a beardown emergence from determination India's tier II and III markets," helium added.
