Small towns witness highest increase in room bookings in 2022: OYO

India's small towns like Hathras, Sasaram, Karaikudi, and Tenali witnessed the highest increase in room bookings in 2022, according to hospitality and travel-tech firm OYO's annual data.

With travel bouncing back strongly after the pandemic, OYO Travelopedia 2022 found that Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, and Chennai emerged as the most booked cities in India for business travel.

"Uttar Pradesh became the most visited state in 2022. Smaller towns and cities such as Hathras (Uttar Pradesh), Srinagar in Uttarakhand, Sasaram (Bihar), Karaikudi (Tamil Nadu) and Tenali (Andhra Pradesh) observed the highest increase in bookings in 2022 versus 2021. June 4, 2022, was the most booked day in 2022," OYO said in a statement citing its data.

While Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, and Chennai are the most booked cities for business travel, OYO said Jaipur, Goa, Kochi, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam topped the charts as favourite leisure destinations in 2022.

"Varanasi became the most booked destination for pilgrimage followed by Tirupati, Puri, Amritsar and Haridwar. June 3-5, 2022 recorded the maximum bookings in comparison to any other long weekend this year," it added.

In terms of international trends, OYO said Belgium's Luxembourg province emerged as Europe's favourite travel destination, while most bookings made on the OYO Vacation Homes brand platforms stemmed from Denmark.

In the US, Texas was the most visited state in 2022. As for the UK, London, Plymouth, Middlesbrough, Leicester and Brighton were the top favourite holiday destinations of 2022.

As per the OYO Travelopedia 2022, a traveller from the US made a single booking for 339 days in 2022, while the longest stay in Europe was booked for about 105 days in Denmark by a customer.

OYO Global Chief Service Officer Shreerang Godbole said 2022 has been a year full of fervour, and travel bounced back with a sharp recovery curve.

"This year, we observed that travellers wanted to make the most of their holidays, and extended long weekends. Remote working offered flexibility to consumers to use their time and explore domestic destinations to make up for their lost vacations," he said.

Godbole further said, "Globally, leisure destinations are leading the travel recovery curve, while in India, we're seeing business travel also significantly contribute to the sector".

In 2022, OYO said its customers made over 8 million 'super quick' bookings in just under 5 minutes and its chatbot 'YoChat' resolved 13 million queries in 2022.