Spiritual tourism finds new devotion among Indian travellers

The past two years have seen a remarkable spike in domestic tourists seeking out pilgrimage hotspots, according a report put out on Monday, by the online travel platform - MakeMyTrip. Searches for religious sites have gone up 97% in these two years, it said.

With the Ram Mandir being inaugurated earlier this year, queries for Ayodhya grew 585% in 2023 as compared to the previous calendar year. Similarly, searches for Ujjain were up by 359% and for Badrinath by 343% in the same time frame.

The online travel services platform analysed activities of its 100 million-plus annual active users to extrapolate insights for the inaugural edition of its ‘India Travel Trends Report’.

“Understanding the evolving travel behaviours of Indian travellers is essential to help shape the future of tourism, both domestically and globally,” MakeMyTrip Co-founder and Group Chief Executive Rajesh Magow said, adding that these insights can help bridge the demand and supply gaps in the travel and hospitality space.

Among other trends, an increase in holiday frequency, spontaneous plans, family-centric trips and increased exposure to international destinations, stood out.

The club of travellers who took over 3 trips per year grew by 25% in 2023 versus 2019. Family travel bookings surged by 64% annually last year, with nearly 20% of family travellers looking for accommodations costing over Rs 10,000 per night. Solo travel bookings, on the other hand, recorded a 23% year-on-year growth in 2023.

Women flyers preferred to pre-book window seats, while men picked aisle seats. Also, Tomato Cucumber Cheese Lettuce Sandwich was crowned the most popular in-flight meal on domestic journeys.

UPI was the most preferred payment method, accounting for 40% of all travel bookings on the platform. Owing to associated benefits, credit cards were the most used payment mode for high value transactions such as for booking international hotels and flights. 

That apart, 50% or one out of every two travel gift cards, was presented as a wedding shagun, largely in the denominations of Rs 5,000 and 10,000.

Domestic travel

Weekend getaways continued to curry favour with Indians with searches for Jim Corbett soaring 131% in 2023, compared to 2022. Other favourites in the category included Ooty and Munnar in southern India.

One out of every two domestic flyers picked a flight between 9 am - 6 pm, irrespective of their destination or origin. Furthermore, 46% of domestic flights and 56% of domestic leisure hotel bookings on the platform were booked less than a week before the travel date.

Foreign shores

Searches for emerging international destinations grew multi-fold in 2023 with Hong Kong, Almaty, Paro, Baku, Da Nang and Tbilisi featuring among the hot favourites. About 30% of all international travel searches from India were for Dubai, Bangkok and Singapore, while London, Toronto and New York emerged as popular long-haul destinations.

While half of all international bookings were made at least two weeks in advance, one-third were locked more than a month before the travel date.

Additionally, 33% of international hotel bookings were made at least 30 days before the date of travel. Simultaneously, alternative accommodations on the platform recorded a 24% growth in bookings in 2023.