Independence Day weekend starts, travellers take off on short vacations

PUNE: Fitness consultant Garima Kukreja has travelled to Goa for the Independence Day long weekend to enjoy quality time with her family. The Kalyaninagar resident had planned the outing weeks in advance and the family of four drove down to the beach destination on Saturday for a two-day stay.

Like Kukreja, several wanderlusts have planned getaways with their friends and family to capitalize on the two consecutive public holidays in the week — Janmashtami on August 14 followed by Independence Day.

Sharing her excitement, Garima said, “We like to head out on road trips and this long weekend suited us perfectly. I have not taken a single day off thanks to the public holidays. We zeroed in on Goa early so that we could book before the last minute rush started.”

According to holiday planning companies, this time bookings have been made much in advance, courtesy the hype surrounding the longest weekend of the year.

Travel companies like

Yatra

reported more than a two-fold surge in bookings by travellers, as compared to the corresponding period last year. Expedia also pinned it on people travelling home for festivities such as Rakshabandhan (August 7) .

Manmeet Ahluwalia, marketing head of Expedia in India, said, “Indians love utilizing long weekends for short breaks and the trend has been catching up with young couples, working singles and families dependent on school/college holidays. We have seen a growth of over 45% experiential travellers this year as Indians plan short

vacation

with their families.”

Smart travellers took advantage of airfare sales to grab good deals, said Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C) of Yatra.com. Elaborating on local travellers’ holiday plans, he said, “In the last few years, we have seen a change in preferences among travellers from Pune. While budget hotels remain the preferred choice of accommodation, homestays as a category has also gained popularity this weekend. There has been a significant increase in the number of travellers from nearby cities visiting Pune for trekking, camping and adventure sports.”

Karan Anand, head of relationships at Cox & Kings, shared details about the most-preferred destinations. “August is the month of festivals, especially in Europe with many carnivals, medieval fairs and music fests. Many Indian travellers look forward to attend these carnivals and even combine a couple of European destinations together to enjoy the cultural shows to the fullest,” he said.