Popularity of long weekends travel growing among Indians says experts

A new trend is coming into picture these days.Indians are willing to take short breaks on long weekends, there has been a surge in bookings for long weekends and short haul overseas destinations are the most in demand, according to industry players.

There has been a whopping 52 per cent uptake in overall bookings compared to last year in airlines, hotel and tour package reservations, FCM Travel Solutions (Indian subsidiary of FCTG, Australia) Executive Director, Leisure Businesses Shravan Gupta said.He said popular short haul destinations such as Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, and Thailand have witnessed a growth of 41 per cent from last year. Domestic bookings to all time favorites destinations like Goa, Rajasthan, Kerala, Ladakh, Coorg, and Delhi continued to increase.

Hotels.com Director, Regional Marketing Greater China, SEA and India, Jessica Chuang said long weekend travel is a fast-growing trend in India which is especially popular amongst time-starved young working professionals and millennials. "We have also seen a spike in searches by Indians for quick getaways over the duration coinciding with long weekends. Indian cities like Goa and Udaipur as well as short-haul destinations like Bali (Indonesia), Singapore, Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya (Thailand) and Dubai are extremely popular," she added.

As per Yatra's data, budget hotels continue to be the most popular category of accommodation for the upcoming weekends. There has been last minute dash for bookings comparedto last year as 43 per cent of the bookings happened in thelast two days, it added.The trend of taking frequent breaks on long weekends has been growing over the past few years as people are looking for a quick, short respite from their monotonous urban lives.The upcoming long weekend has seen a huge surge in hotelbookings at destinations close to the metros, with a number ofthese being sold out already.A trend is seen all over the country asholiday packages are picking up from all major cities.