OnlinetravelportalsgearupforlongweekendsinAugust

Travel portals, hotels and tour operators are gearing up this August for what looks like an exciting travel month with several long weeks around Rakhi, Independence Day, Ganesh Chaturthi and Janmashtami.

Travel portals are expecting an average 50% jump in bookings this month with people looking for quick weekend getaways by clubbing their leaves with off days.

Flight Shop, the flagship retail leisure business of Australia-headquartered Flight Centre Travel Group (FCM), has seen a 52% jump in overall bookings this August for airlines, hotel and tour package reservations, compared with last year.

Travel portal Cleartrip is seeing a 45% jump in air bookings for Independance Day, from other weekends this year, with Goa being the most sought after destination. This is despite air fares being 38% higher. Among the metros, Hyderabad registered the maximum — 78% — jump in bookings over other weekends.

Ritesh Agarwal, founder of OYO Rooms, said that quarter ending September will easily surpass the $100 million gross bookings mark achieved by OYO in the previous quarter with significant bookings coming in for August.

Though a bulk of Carlson Rezidor’s portfolio comprises business hotels, the hotel chain which has brands such as Radisson, Radisson Blu and Country Inn & Suites is expecting over 80% occupancies in its leisure destination hotels like Udaipur, Jaipur and Shimla.

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