Hotel industry was one of the worst hit due to the travelrestrictions which had to be imposed to curb any further spread of COVID-19virus. Now, with India easing the restrictions and unlocking its economy, hoteloccupancy in certain locations has recorded more than 30% occupancy rate. Theearlier 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 hadthree times more occupancy. Leisure destinations like Goa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Karnataka,and Kochi showed improvement. A tourist gateway or a tourism gateway or gatewaycity is a place where tourists first visit on their way to a touristattraction.
The jump has been powered by contribution of leisure segmentwhile the demand in the earlier months was sustained by quarantine stays. Manypeople have developed pent-up feelings as they were not able to travel duringthe lockdown. Such feelings are expected to be resolved in ‘revenge travel’ andwill be good for hotel business.
People prefer to travel in their cars, though transport by airlinesand trains are also increasing. Vacations by car feel safer to individuals, andthus travel locations which are accessible by cars are seeing more traffic.
Additionally, raising the cap on public congregations to 100has jump-started wedding business with bookings for banquets and open lawns forcelebrations. However, an otherwise big contributor to hotel business,corporates, has not yet begun its recovery. Hotel companies are preparing plansto attract the same.