Indian travel agencies including OTAs and social commerce platforms are seeing strong demand in travel bookings for the next few months, especially to beat the summer heat.

According to the rating agency ICRA, the domestic air passenger traffic for FY 2023 is predicted to reach the pre-pandemic levels seen in FY 2019. In fact, the domestic passenger traffic of 130 lakhs in March 2023 is already 12 per cent higher than the traffic recorded in March 2019, before the pandemic. Despite increased airfare and hotel bookings, the demand for travel bookings is not going to slow down its pace any sooner. In fact, it is emerging from not only popular cities but also smaller towns of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

“The Indian traveller has shown unprecedented zeal through 2022 to make-up for the lost travel opportunities during the pandemic lockdowns. These “revenge travel” urges of 2022 will become the yearly routines in 2023 and beyond, continuing the growth trajectory next year. People’s memory is alive with the recreational and wellness benefits from their 2022 trips, something they are eager to repeat every year to get a reprieve from their hectic and stressful daily routines. We will see demand for nature retreats, wellness tourism and spiritual travel further increase in 2023, driving growth in domestic tourism in India,” says Ashish Sidhra, co-founder of Alike.io.