Travel and hospitality industry braces for take-off after long pandemic lull

Travel took a backseat in the last two years as the pandemic engulfed the whole world and restricted movement across or in some cases, even within cities. But in 2022, it is back in full swing, with expectations of a busy festive season for the hospitality industry across India.

Companies such as Cleartrip and Club Mahindra have interesting offers and campaigns in store to entice travellers between the festive months of October and December.

Speaking of a busy festive season and consumer sentiment, Cleartrip’s Chief Marketing Officer, Kunal Dubey says “In terms of demand, the booking window has shrunk across both air and hotel categories. The company is witnessing over 50 per cent of bookings coming in a week before check-in in hotels. With respect to the air business, in addition to the quantum of domestic pent-up demand growing, we are seeing a continuous upward trajectory of growth in our international business as well.”

“Professionally, this is my favourite part of the year. Cleartrip is all set to go live with India’s biggest travel festival as part of The Big Billion Days 2022. We are ready to raise the bar for travel this festive season amidst stiff competition for the consumer’s share of wallet from most e-commerce brands. We want consumers to think differently and prioritise travel this festive season by making the most of the never-seen-before offers.” he adds.

Conrad Bengaluru is also gearing up for the festive season. “We are really looking forward to celebrating the festive season with our guests this year and are excited to unravel the festive calendar. The festive period is by far the strongest quarter for our outlets and all our restaurants our buzzing with guests in festive spirits,” says Rajan Malhotra, Commercial Director of Conrad Bengaluru.

He goes on to speak about the ad spending this year for the season of festivities. “Yes, we have increased the spending this season, compared to the last two years. And as the market is also shaping towards an uptick in travel trends Q4 has been planned with lots of tactical and PR spends to garner regional and nationwide reach.”

“Demand continues to be robust with Hotels in the Luxury segment clocking in north of 75% occupancies,” Malhotra adds.

Hareesh Tibrewala, Joint CEO of Mirum India said, “Travel should be doing extremely well. Covid concerns are pretty much done with and we should be seeing Indians making the best of the Diwali vacations and Christmas vacations to catch up on travel. We expect Pre Covid (2019) kind of spends in this sector. Capacity addition in the industry got slowed during Covid. Hence inventory is going to be limited. But we expect robust ad spends.”

Cleartrip’s Dubey also speaks about the media mix that is being used to market this festive season by the bookings company. “We have a mix of offline and digital channels in the marketing mix for the campaign. Being a digital-first brand, a significant share of our media is always skewed towards digital channels but in innovative ways. We are looking to leverage a width of digital channels other than Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram which are a regular part of our mix. We also have a set of unconventional activations planned through other channels to break clutter during the peak festive sale season and to drive talkability.”

Conrad’s Malhotra on the other hand talks about a shift in marketing towards the digital. “Yes, there has been a drastic change post-Covid. As digitalization has evolved our spends too on digital media has been on the higher side, however, print media still plays a critical role. It is crucial to be consistent and curate campaigns that help maintain overall visibility.”

Club Mahindra is also preparing for the festive period and expecting a strong festive with over 85% bookings for the October-December period. The brand is witnessing an uptick in daycations and staycations as travellers are choosing to visit to drivable destinations for Dussehra and Diwali.

Kavinder Singh, MD & CEO of Mahindra Holidays & Resorts says, “We anticipate a busy holiday with over 85% of reservations for the months of October to December. As more people choose to travel to drivable locations during Dussehra and Diwali, the number of daytrips and staycations is increasing. We look to close the quarter at around 80% occupancy. For July and August 2022, over 81% and 78% of the available units had already been taken. Additionally, our Q3FY23 business is now more than 85% on the books.”

Karan Taurani of Elara Capital shares his views on the hospitality industry’s performance this season “I think travel hospitality will make a strong comeback because that is one segment which has missed upon the entire growth and consumption aspect over the last two years because of various restrictions around travel. So, this is like a huge benefit, because this time around there is festive and there is no restriction and things are normal. So, that's one vertical wherein a lot of ad spends will come from.”

Pandemic and related lockdowns shut hotels and flights across India and the world in 2020. Cut to 2022, the world is opening up and people are ready to pack their bags for vacations, staycations and luxury holidays. Pent-up demand from the last two years is giving travel and hospitality an edge to make the maximum of the holiday and festival season of this year.