Only 19% citizens say they will undertake festive travel this year

Only 19% citizens say they will travel this festive season(Oct-Dec 20)

This means that only 19% citizens say they will travel in the upcoming festive season between Oct-Dec 2020. Many people have either been confined to their homes or have been working from home for the past 6 months and are desperate to get out and travel, but the fear of contracting the virus is pulling them back.

When asked about their preferred mode of travel, 23% said their primary mode of travel will be flights, 6% said trains and 38% said they will travel by road and take a car or taxi. 18% said they will take multiple modes in the same or different trips. 15% were unsure.

Highest percentage of travelers this festive season will travel by car/taxi in light of the COVID-19 pandemic

Given the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, it looks like car/taxi would be the most preferred mode of travel in the months when the country sees highest number of travellers. Scheduled international commercial passenger flights have been banned by the Government further till the 30th September and many states within India also have been restricting the daily number of flights or flights coming in from certain states to contain the spread of the infection. However, flight under the Vande Bharat Mission and under the air-bubbles created with countries like USA, France, Germany, Canada, UK, other European and Gulf countries continue to operate.

When asked if they had booked their travel for this festive season, a majority 68% said “no and said they will not book till closer to the travel date”. 16% said “no but will book soon” and 16% were still unsure about it.

Indians sceptical about festive travel this year, haven’t booked and majority won’t book till it gets closer to travel date

Train booking in India is opened 120 days prior to departure and in normal times are usually sold out within a couple of days during this time before the festive season. But given the COVID-19 situation in the country and close to 90,000 cases being reported every day, many want to stay put in their homes and avoid travel as much as possible. With most states relaxing the norms and opening their borders for tourists, people believe traveling with their family by a car or taxi would be much safer than travelling by a flight or by train in this fast spreading pandemic.

Based on the survey findings, service providers in the road transportation sector may want to build capacity to seize the festival demand uptick. Similarly, online travel portals may want to consider more providers for outstation rental cars and taxi services. Airlines and Indian Railways may need to carefully evaluate any capacity increases they may be planning keeping in mind the survey findings and the spread of COVID-19 in September.

Survey Demographics

25,000+ responses were received across 239 districts of India. 66% respondents were men while 34% respondents were women. 61% respondents were from tier 1, 28% from tier 2 and 11% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts. They survey was conducted via LocalCircles platform and all participants are validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey.