Pundits have long argued that boom in traveling is a sure sign of growing economy. So too are opting for advanced medicare, splurging on shopping, sending kids to money-guzzling schools, but these are somewhat not so openly pronounced. Traveling on the other hand is. See my post, Have money, will tour.
Go to book your air ticket in high season (now any time for that matter), chance is you’ll find yourself in an air pocket. Want train ticket? No luck unless you’ve booked months in advance. This winter many people have gone to coldest of places – something inconceivable in India even a couple of years back.
Ask them the reason. You may get to know 2 answers. One is of course predictable – no vacancy during diwali and puja. The other will surprise you. The new ‘in’ thing is winter tourism. Which means many will deliberately prefer end of the year to come to Kashmir, Darjeeling, Simla and suchlike.
This new preference is an indication that people are no longer staid travelers. They ask for fun and entertainment in the itinerary and are not loathe to shell out extra bucks for the same.
Affluence apart, the other important factor responsible for spurt in tourism is spread of Internet. Seen from this angle, you’ll appreciate that multiplicity of travel websites is not a fluke. This is further reinforced by the fact that the highest online commerce has been in Indian Railway site for several years running, while those of low-cost airlines gaining prominence rapidly.
No wonder, online travel booking is set to climb one-billion-dollar mark by the end of this year, up from $460 million last year. It is estimated to touch $2 billion by end-2008 (per ET, Kolkata, Jan 20).
While the traveling scene hots up like never before, what are the main travel sites in India? Global majors (mainly US-based), Expedia, travelocity and tripMela – the last one targeting India – are shoring up action-filled entry into India very shortly.
So too are Indian sites that have already made their presence felt. Some of these are:
- MakeMyTrip (having offices in US and Australia)
- yatra
- indiatimesTRAVEL (from TOI group)
And also,
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