Thomas Cook India has observed a significant 21% growth in demand for the Durga Puja festive break, from travellers in West Bengal and surrounding source markets.
It’s internal data reveals the strong and growing Festival Holiday trend of Indians preferring to travel rather than stay at home, during festivals. Over the last 5 years, the company has witnessed the Durga Puja season being leveraged by Bengalis to plan a smart mini-vacation/break that coincides with school holidays, and maximise the opportunity to rejuvenate and recharge, as well as bond with their families.
The Festive/Puja break is a strong driver of the tourism business for West Bengal and the East markets, coming a close second to Summer vacations. To capitalise on this trend, Thomas Cook India has launched a series of attractive domestic and international tour packages: Anandomoy Europe, Darshaniya Europe, Ananda Dubai, Asia-Te Hoi Choi, Monmatano Asia, Mishorer Morichika, Ek Nojore Thailand, and other Durga Puja specials. These unique tours, in combination with attractive discounts and curated itineraries, are serving well to catalyse consumer demand for Festival travel.
Domestic Tourism is witnessing a strong resurgence, with an over 20% growth in demand across Andamans, Kerala, and Himachal Pradesh, amongst others. From an international perspective, interestingly, it is not just short-haul destinations (Singapore, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Thailand, and Malaysia) that are witnessing brisk demand, but also mid and long-haul locales, like China, Egypt, and the evergreen Bengali favourite of Europe! U.K., France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Scandinavia, and Bulgaria have been contributing to an overall 22% spike in outbound demand.
Thomas Cook India’s data highlights that consumers from West Bengal are passionate travellers who enjoy local culture and cuisine while travelling. Demand, this season, is contributed to by diverse segments, including the powerful family segment, along with couples/honeymooners, DINKs, Gen Z, Gen S/Seniors, and ladies only groups, and equally, by the b-leisure and corporate MICE groups.
Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head – Holidays, MICE, Visa, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., said, “Our West Bengal customers are maximising festive breaks to transform them into multiple mini-vacations, as opposed to just one long vacation per year. This festival tourism trend is resulting in an impressive growth in demand of approx. 23-25% Y-o-Y for Durga Puja holidays. We have hence launched a series of special Durga Puja packages, such as Darshaniya Europe, Asia-Te Hoi Choi, Ek Nojore Thailand, Monmatano Asia, Ananda Dubai, and Mishorer Morichika, to inspire even higher uptake from our Bengali travellers.”