Monsoon tours make a splash with discount offers

Tour companies see 25-70% growth in bookings

Tour companies saw a strong growth in sale of monsoon tour packages, fueled by airline and hotel discounts.

Domestic airlines reported a growth in occupancy last month (79.5%) in comparison to 77.5% loads recorded in June 2014.

While Kuoni-SOTC has seen a growth of 20-25% in bookings for monsoon tours, online travel portals are witnessing a growth of 25-70%. Portals like Cleartrip are also seeing a rise in customers booking tours using mobile phones. 

“We have seen an increasing trend of Indian travelers venturing out during monsoons, with a 27% rise over the last year," said Vikram Malhi, managing director of Expedia for Asia region. 

Expedia is offering discounts ranging from 40-60% on hotel bookings and Goa, Kerala and Rajasthan are favourite destinations, he added. 

Amongst the foreign destinations Thailand, Sri Lanka and Dubai are favourites, Sharat Dhall, president of Yatra.com said. Yatra is reporting growth of 72% in monsoon tour bookings.

Daniel D’souza, head of sales - tour operations, Kuoni India said that package costs are 20-40% lower this season compared to peak travel season because of attractive offers from airlines and hotels. For instance, Oberoi group is offering discounted rates for its properties across India and special weekend tariff for its city hotels till September-end.

"Over 32% of all bookings made for monsoon holidays (for travel between July – September 2015) on Cleartrip were made on mobile phones. Last year this was 19%. This shows an astounding 65% growth y-o-y for mobile bookings for the monsoon tours," said Amit Taneja, chief revenue officer of Cleartrip.