Demand Consistency For Tourism Is Questionable: Expedia

New Delhi: Travel and tourism industry, not just globally, but in the domestic market, has built up momentum after a challenging period of 2 years. But an uncertainty on the demand and the operations aspects continue to loom over as new variants of Covid-19 and subsequent rise in cases are being recorded in India.

Hans India spoke with Anubhav Jain, Business Development Manager, Expedia, on the booming demand to resume travelling for leisure from the domestic market and new travel preferences emerging in the post Covid-19 era.

Speaking to Hans India, Jain said that there has been a pent up demand from customer point of view as people could accumulate savings, for travel and leisure, in these 2.5 years. The Business Development Manager of Expedia firmly believes that the domestic business for tourism and travel industry has already picked up. But the consistency of this demand is rather questionable due to new emerging variants of Covid-19.

"But by and large the sentiment in the industry is that an endemic and small bit of trough and crest will be there but the demand per say would be very high. We will also see extended summer season this time because there are if and buts to get visas. There's a long queue to get visas. But the overall sentiment in the travel sector seems promising," he said.

In terms of new travelers' emerging preferences, the company says that it has observed a growth in the average booking value due to hygiene consciousness amongst customers. More travellers are preferring to stay at a high rated hotel, which has in turn resulted at 70 to 80 percent occupancy at the hotels or guesthouses.

Jain mentioned that yet another pandemic like situation in the future might bring in some uncertainty for the travel and tourism segment as it is the customer demand sentiments which drives the market. Though, he believes that the hospitality industry has become rather proactive in taking measures to ensure sanitation and following Covid-19 protocols.

In terms of making travel and tourism apps more user friendly, Anubhav Jain said, "I think there has been a lot going on already. For example, you get intuitive packages which get made which means you (traveller) don't have to put in too much time and energy to plan for an expert trip. So, an elderly couple can make use of curated packages as per their need."

Jain says that Expedia relies heavily on India for technology talent which would be the core focus of the company for the current financial year as well.