Holi weekend air travel surges but fares static in lean March – ET TravelWorld

For the weary office-goer, there is probably nothing quite as fetching as a festival holiday that falls close to a weekend. This year, Holi helpfully fell on a Friday, making it possible to extend the weekend as revelers flew out on Thursday to places such as Vrindavan, Varanasi, Dubai or Goa, Mumbaikars’ perennial favourite destination, said travel companies.

As March is a lean month for air travel, there was not much of an impact on airfares to these destinations for travel during the Holi weekend. Even the 24-hour advance purchase fares for travel during the Holi weekend were not high.

Skyscanner said its data showed a 353 per cent surge in searches for flights to Agra for March 12 compared to the same day in Feb. Agra is the nearest airport to popular Holi destinations of Vrindavan and Mathura. Searches for March 11 alone spiked 417 per cent compared to the previous day, it said. The data showed March 13 and March 15 as the popular travel dates.

“Holi in Vrindavan and Mathura is celebrated as a multi-day spectacle, steeped in history, devotion, and an explosion of colour. From Barsana’s ‘Lathmar Holi’ where women playfully chase men with sticks to ‘Phoolon wali Holi’ at the Banke Bihari Temple where petals replace coloured powder,” said a Skyscanner spokesperson.

There were also international trips. “The long weekend spurred a 27.2 per cent increase in family travel compared to last year,” said Atlys, a visa-processing platform. The data also highlights a broader trend: 55 per cent of Holi travel applications span four to seven days, showcasing the rise of festival-linked tourism.

Digital travel platform Agoda said it observed a 25 per cent rise in domestic accommodation searches and a 16 per cent increase in outbound this Holi month compared to the same period last year. For international travel, Dubai leads the list of most-searched destinations, followed by Phuket, Bangkok, Singapore and Bali. Domestically, Goa claimed the top spot with Udaipur, New Delhi, Mumbai and Vrindavan rounding out the top five, it said. Krishna Rathi of Agoda said: “Holi is one of India’s most important festivals. And with the long weekend, travellers are eager to celebrate it in new and exciting ways.”Rajesh Magow of MakeMyTrip said, “Bookings for accommodations in cultural hubs like Jaipur and Udaipur, temple towns such as Amritsar, Varanasi, Ujjain and Madurai, and beach destinations like Pondicherry, Alibaug and Mandarmani show steady growth. Internationally, we are observing the highest growth in short-haul destinations like Vietnam, Malaysia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.”