International Travel Demand Picking Up in India

The demand for international travel is picking up in India. This is due to the easing in curbs of COVID-19 travel restrictions. More and more countries are allowing Indians to enter their boundaries without mandatory quarantine. However, passengers need to be completely vaccinated for that and also have to undergo several PCR tests before and after reaching their destination. International destinations such as the United States and the United Kingdom are seeing great demand for travel from India. According to an ET report, Vinod Kannan, Chief Commercial Officer (CFO), Vistara, said, “We are observing some improvement in demand on the India-UK route with majority of the bookings being made a few weeks before travel. This increase can be mainly attributed to relaxation in Covid restrictions and the year-end travel season. However, with the growing preference for non-stop, direct flights and the overall positive sentiment, we remain confident about the future.” Even MakeMyTrip, India’s top travel booking portal, said that there had been significant jumps in the international travel bookings for November 2021. “There has been a significant uptick in searches and bookings to the UK, and we are now seeing similar traction building up for searches to the US as travel restrictions were eased for Indian travellers,” said Vipul Prakash, COO at MakeMyTrip. This is a great sign for the airlines and the travel and tourism industry which has been stale over the last two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.