Rain or shine, August set to be the month of travel 

Bengaluru

The long weekend between August 11 and August 15 will see people of Bengaluru heading out in hordes, with both government and private travel organisers reporting a big jump in bookings. Pouring rains have hardly proved a dampener to those bitten by the travel bug.

Most of the properties belonging to Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) and Jungle Lodge Resorts (JLR) have been overbooked for the first two weeks of the month. All the package tours to Tirupathi offered by the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) been booked 100% over the long weekend.

String of holidays

With Raksha Bandhan on August 11 and Independence Day on August 15, the travelers are making full use of the long weekend. The Madhurai–Rameshwaram–Kanyakumari tour and Mysuru– Ooty–Kodaikanal, Sigandhore and Jog Falls tours by KSTDC have high number of bookings during the weekend.  

“Throughout the state, in most tourist spots, we are not able to find even one empty room. There is a huge boom this month when compared to the last month. Mysuru and Madikeri are in great demand followed by coastal regions and North Karnataka spots. International tourists have also increased,” said T. Venkatesh, Director, Department of Tourism. 

“We have been receiving enquiries from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and other states. For the first two weeks of August, all our properties are 100% booked. The second two weeks, as of now, have been booked 85%,” said Manojkumar, Managing Director, JLR. He said that Kabini, Bandipur, Bheemeshwari nature camp and Kali Tiger reserve are some of the destinations which are in high demand. 

Millennial crowd

Along with families, the working millennial crowd is also eager to travel this month. Mini vacations and staycations are in high demand, private tour conductors have reported. A survey conducted by Thomas Cook (India), showed that 69% of their respondents were keen on traveling during the second weekend of the month. Around 66% of them wanted to travel to domestic destinations while 34% of them preferred short, international trips. The company has also seen a two fold increase from last month in the number of bookings for the long weekend. 

“On the domestic front, demand is at an all-time high for locations like Kashmir, Leh Ladakh, Kerala, Goa and Andaman. Closer home and easy visa destinations like Dubai, Abu Dhabi; island destinations like Maldives and Mauritius and South East Asian destinations like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are top preference for our Bengaluru customers for the upcoming long weekend,” said Santhosh Kanna, Vice President, Leisure Travel – Thomas Cook (India) Limited.   

Experts say that going by the current trends, good days are ahead for the tourism industry for at least the next two months (until Dasara vacation).

“Until now, we have close to 6000 flight bookings with us from Bangalore for the 11-15th long weekend and are expecting the bookings to increase by 30-40% in the coming days,” said Rikant Pitti, co-founder, EaseMyTrip.

He added that monsoon has further fuelled the interest to travel as it has uplifted the scenic beauty of places.