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God's own prices: A travel website has tied up with all hotels across categories in the state to offer rooms at heavily discounted rates |
According to travel agents, apart from inflation, the main reasons behind this slump are increasing airfares and the recent terror blasts.
"We have seen a decline in people making enquiries or bookings. While the airfare hike is the main reason, the blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore can also be attributed to the decline," said Ajay Prakash, national general secretary of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI).
Cuffe Parade resident and banker Brian D'Souza said it was the airfare that put him off from travelling during the long weekend. "I wanted to visit Agra to see the Taj Mahal. What would have been better than the Independence Day to do that? But with fares like Rs 5,325 on low-cost flights and Rs 6,775 on full-service carriers made me cancel my plans," he said.
To overcome this slump, some travel websites are now going all out to woo travellers.
Popular portal Travelguru.com is offering two, three and four-star hotel rooms for as cheap as Rs 50 a day in Kerala, to promote the weekend.
"We have tied up with all hotels across categories in Kerala to offer rooms at heavily discounted rates during this period," said Hari V Krishnan, vice-president, marketing and product, Travelguru.com.
Krishnan added that while the hike in airfares had dissuaded long distance travel to a large extent, closer destinations like Goa still had some takers.
In comparison
The last long-weekend was in March, when Mumbaikars made the best of five holidays starting with Id-e-Milad on a Thursday, followed by Good Friday, Holi, a Sunday and Shivaji Jayanti on Monday. According to the TAAI, over 50,000 people went to nearby destinations like Mahabaleshwar, Lonavla, Goa and Daman. About 2,000 Mumbaikars travelled to overseas destinations like Singapore and Bangkok then.
However, according to TAAI, only 10,000 people will be travelling to nearby destinations during the upcoming long weekend.
