Revenge Travel revives the tourism industry

People are opting for shorter duration and budget-friendly trips.

Tourist hotspots in the city and around are getting traction as people turn to revenge travelling due to lockdown fatigue.

Data revealed that in 2021, the passenger traffic in India amounted to over 115 million at airports out of which over 10 million were international passengers. A press release from the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) showed that domestic air traffic (of short duration flights) increased to 15.12 million in 2021 from 12.39 million in 2020.

 The tourist arrivals are estimated to have fallen by 74 percent in 2020 compared to 2019 and the tourism sector accounts to more than 10 percent of global GDP, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

In the neighbourhood:

The social media has lured a lot of working professionals to travel and break free from the monotonous work from home routine. Hence, the tourism industry is looking up.

“Recently, I went for a trek to Mullayanagiri in Karnataka with my friends. It wasn’t a planned thing rather an impulsive decision to take a break from the routine life. And surprisingly, this trek turned out to be super fun,” said Ankit Sharma, an IT professional.

Another resident of the city, Jayalaxshmi recently went for a weekend getaway to Chikmagalur which is around 250km from Bengaluru. She said, “For the last few months, I had been occasionally treating myself with weekend getaways to relax. I prefer these kinds of short trips as they fit my budget. This   also allows me to travel without clashing with my work schedule. I mostly leave on Friday night and I am back by Sunday night to resume work on Monday.”

The travel agencies are experiencing a rise in bookings by 60 percent.

“In Aug 2021 we saw bookings coming in and a majority of our clients opted for backpacking treks and adventure camps which are available during the weekend. So, we now mostly run on these weekend treks as 70-80 percent of clients want to register for this rather than opting for a weeklong trip. In the last four months, we are running on 100 percent occupancy and all our treks are getting sold out,” said Shraddha, Manager at Muddie Trails, a travel company in the city.

She added, “The entire phenomenon of revenge travelling has really been in favour of the tourism sector and is helping us revive from the losses we have incurred during the pandemic.”

“Apart from choosing travel destinations in the city, a lot of people who choose to travel out of the state consider travelling to places like Goa, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir,” said Sanjar, president at Karnataka Tourism Forum.

“The concept of revenge travel isn’t new but it’s the pandemic that instilled this within the Indians. And this is proving to promote the tourism sector to get back on track after incurring huge losses. It’s through this that people are now opting for exclusive travel experiences rather than following the tradition of going on a yearly 7-10 days of vacation,” said Debjit, CEO, Impression Tourism Experts, member of Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO)

Travel within the city:

With the ease in the covid-19 restrictions and decreasing omicron cases in the city, tourist spots such as the Bengaluru Palace, Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bannerghatta Biological Park, Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace etc are attracting heavier footfalls.

Information from the ticketing counter at Bangalore Palace revealed that on an average, around 250-400 people visit the palace and the numbers are high on weekends or public holidays. “The palace had a lot of footfalls during the valentine’s week and even now weekends are mostly full of people,” said Kamal, security personnel at Bangalore Palace.

Tanishka Singh, resident in the city said, “Almost every other weekend I go out with my family to visit at least one tourist attraction in the city simply because we really had been caged at our homes for the last two years and now we all feel like going out to breathe.”