Onam, Raksha Bandhan Travel Rush: More Than 50% Surge in Hotel & Flight Bookings Across India

India's festive travel calendar is in full swing this week since a five-day long weekend is coming around Onam on August 26 and Raksha Bandhan on August 28 because of which there is a sharp spike in flight, hotel and bus bookings across the country.

In Kerala, where Onam celebrations are ongoing for the state's 10-day harvest festival, hotel bookings have jumped 69% YoY as per data from Cleartrip.

Even the bus travel from and to the state is seeing a lot of demand, around a triple-digit increase as per cleartrip data. Ahead of the festivities, air bookings within Kerala also grew.

In North India there is an even sharper surge ahead of Raksha Bandhan, with air bookings to several Tier-2 cities posting sharp YoY gains.

Cleartrip data showed that Lucknow was leading with a 96% rise in air bookings, followed by Bhopal at 86%, Indore at 82%, Raipur at 75% and Patna at 58%.

Previous Years Trend

This Onam-Raksha Bandhan rush is not an isolated spike but part of a wider trend of planned long-weekend travel gaining ground across India.
Data from holiday platform Pickyourtrail shows a 40% YoY growth in long-weekend bookings, with destinations such as the Maldives, Bali, Thailand, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

Next Long weekends fall on Janmashtami on September 4 and Gandhi Jayanti on October 2 both Fridays.

Hill and monsoon-friendly destinations have been getting a lot of demands since they have posted strong growth through the season, with hotel bookings in Wayanad up more than 160% YoY and Alleppey up over 145%, while Kodaikanal and Ooty each grew more than 70% due to rise in demand for both hill and coastal areas.

Special Arrangements Rolled Out

Since highways, railway stations, airports and bus terminals are expected to see heavy footfall through the weekend, several state governments have rolled out special arrangements Haryana, for instance, has announced free bus travel for women on Raksha Bandhan across its Roadways services which will let millions of people travelling to celebrate with family.