“My daughter wanted to go to Kerala this winter. But flight tickets for three people would have cost us close to Rs 1 lakh,” said Maya, a 45-year-old Delhi resident. “Now we have decided to go to Shimla instead where we can travel by car.”

Several vacation plans have faced similar redirection because of the steep airfares this year-end. Hence, many are opting to visit destinations that are a drive away instead of places accessible only by air. As a spokesperson for SOTC said, “We are seeing a high demand for destinations closer to metros”, meaning more bookings for places within driving distance.

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Not just that, bus travel has also picked up. “Airfares are higher this year by 20-30% due to a rise in oil prices and trains have limited availability. Because of this, buses have really picked up in the last few months as travellers are opting for buses as their preferred mode of transport,” said Rohit Sharma, COO – AbhiBus, an Ixigo group company. “Road connectivity is improving and road infrastructure is also getting better in our country, thus fueling the demand for both work and leisure bus travel in tier II and III cities across India,” he added.

As per data by Ixigo, owing to the demand, “airfares have surged for Christmas and New Year holidays. In December last week, the airfares are higher by 25-30% on some routes as compared to the same time last year,” said Aloke Bajpai, group CEO and co-founder, Ixigo.

Speaking of post-Covid recovery, the Ixigo CEO said, “Indian domestic air market rebounded quickly post Covid, despite the increase in ATF prices. However, it is yet to achieve full recovery. In terms of recovery, mid-tier and budget have bounced back much faster than the tier-1 side, because if you look at even last year, trains had already bounced back to pre-Covid levels and flights were at 75-80% of pre-Covid levels at the end of the last financial year. So flights are taking more time to recover and the main reason for that is the high airfares and capacity issues. Buses should reach pre-Covid levels by the end of this year. Road connectivity is improving and road infrastructure is also getting better in our country. So that part of the market is doing well.”

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Online bus ticketing platform RedBus, too, is “witnessing a 30% increase in demand during this year’s holiday season in terms of bookings as compared to last year,” its spokesperson said.

Despite high airfares, air travel compared to Covid times is growing too, “with the search for economy flights has been the maximum,” said Nishant Pitti, CEO & co-founder, EaseMyTrip. Indian airliner Vistara is witnessing a “healthy demand across our network,” its spokesperson said. “We, at Yatra.com, are anticipating approximately 60% increase in booking enquiries,” said COO- leisure & retail, Jatinder Paul Singh. Similarly, Prahlad Krishnamurthi, chief business officer, of Cleartrip, said that “comparing the Christmas and New Year period to pre-covid (2019), the segment size has increased by 1.8 times.” The most popular destinations include “Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Goa, Andaman and the North East,” said Rajeev Kale, president & country head, Holidays, MICE, Visa – Thomas Cook (India).

With borders having opened post-Covid, international travel is recovering too. “The international flight segment has recovered by 75% and is expected to move towards full recovery from here,” said Vipul Prakash, chief operating officer at MakeMyTrip.

While there is no preference in terms of landscape as to where people are travelling to with “ Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Andamans, Goa, Rajasthan, and Kerala being the domestic favourites,” as per Daniel D’Souza, president & country head – Holidays, SOTC Travel, “the demand is definitely beaches over hills,” said Pallavi Agarwal – founder & CEO at goSTOPS, a budget travel hostel. Hotel booking demands are high too. “We are witnessing a 44% rise in booking demand,” an OYO spokesperson said.