Hotel industry was one of the worst hit due to the travel restrictions which had to be imposed to curb any further spread of COVID-19 virus. Now, with India easing the restrictions and unlocking its economy, hotel occupancy in certain locations has recorded more than 30% occupancy rate. The earlier rate was less than 10% during April-May. This has been reported by STR, a global data intelligence gathering company.
In August 2020, large gateway markets like Mumbai, Delhi had three times more occupancy. Leisure destinations like Goa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Kochi showed improvement. A tourist gateway or a tourism gateway or gateway city is a place where tourists first visit on their way to a tourist attraction.
The jump has been powered by contribution of leisure segment while the demand in the earlier months was sustained by quarantine stays. Many people have developed pent-up feelings as they were not able to travel during the lockdown. Such feelings are expected to be resolved in ‘revenge travel’ and will be good for hotel business.
People prefer to travel in their cars, though transport by airlines and trains are also increasing. Vacations by car feel safer to individuals, and thus travel locations which are accessible by cars are seeing more traffic.
Additionally, raising the cap on public congregations to 100
has jump-started wedding business with bookings for banquets and open lawns for
celebrations. However, an otherwise big contributor to hotel business,
corporates, has not yet begun its recovery. Hotel companies are preparing plans
to attract the same.