Travel in county Cook

One of England’s most legendary, legally protected prehistoric landmarks, Stonehenge, is believed to date back at least 4,000 years. Today, this cultural icon still stands as a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. Although there’s an air of mystery that surrounds the monument, it’s said to be aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice. Here’s where to spend the night nearby while checking out this unforgettable and unique attraction.

Goa is not ready to lose out on the destination wedding business, especially this close to the upcoming wedding season. The state has rolled back its decision to increase the fees to hold private events, including weddings.  

IndiGo, India’s largest airline, will be introducing a business class on the high-demand Delhi-Mumbai route. This is a strategic move by the airline to meet the growing demand for luxury and premium travel.

In this episode of the Skift India Travel Podcast, Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia sits down with Mahesh Iyer, managing director and CEO of Thomas Cook India, to explore how the company is strategically adapting to the evolving preferences of Indian travelers. The discussion delves into the shifting dynamics of India’s travel landscape and how Thomas Cook is positioning itself to meet these new demands.

Hilton has partnered with Indian actor Sidharth Malhotra to extend its global marketing platform, ‘Hilton. For The Stay’ in the Indian market. The campaign would be driven with new initiatives and investments tailored to India, the company said in a statement. 

The Madras High Court has made it mandatory for all motor vehicles seeking to enter the Nilgiris and Kodaikanal between May 7 and June 30 to obtain electronic passes. The aim is to collect data on the number of tourists visiting and the number and types of vehicles that are entering these hill stations.

In the fiscal year 2023-24 budget, the Indian government showed its recognition of the immense potential of the travel and tourism sector by allocating INR 24 billion ($290 million).

It was the first week of April, the dawn of spring in most of the Northern Hemisphere, but in Anchorage it still felt very much like winter. Snow was everywhere: piled high on rooftops and cars, lining the sidewalks in colossal embankments, floating in clumps in the Cook Inlet, and shellacking the nearby Chugach Mountains, which form a fierce and jagged amphitheater on the city's eastern edge.

Canada, our friendly northern neighbor, boasts extraordinarily diverse geography, from tall Rocky Mountain peaks to expansive flat prairie land and seaside communities on both coasts. With a smaller national population than that of California, it's perhaps unsurprising that Canada is also full of charming small towns and welcoming rural communities worth planning a trip around. You’ll find salty little enclaves, graced by orcas and world-class surfers in British Columbia; tiny mountain towns with Gold Rush history in the Yukon’s Grizzly country; and, of course, flannel-filled hubs for outdoors lovers who want to bike and hike in the country’s dramatic national parks. What links them together, though, is that small town spirit, and undeniable charm. (Don’t be surprised if your small town trip warrants big time vacation days—please like these are never easy to leave.)

Whoopie pies probably won't save humankind. But a stop at DonnaSue Bakes + Cooks in Vermont's Champlain Islands is sure to boost your faith in humanity. As soon as my mom and I see the large handwritten letters spelling out “PIE” on a sun-faded shed off Route 2 in the town of Grand Isle, we hit the brakes on our bikes. A sign next to a Betsy Ross flag informs us that Sunday business hours are “by chance.”

“Chowder has always been here,” says Emily Haynes. “It isn’t just a dish for Nova Scotians — it’s who we are.” The executive director of Taste of Nova Scotia, an association that promotes businesses that champion local ingredients, Emily is taking me for a blustery coastal stroll along the Bay of Fundy. “Chowder was shipboard food,” she says as we pass fishing boats stranded on the bay’s muddy bottom; the Atlantic inlet between the Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is home to the world’s highest tides. “Fishermen would cook salt cod or fresh catch with salt pork in hot water, then ship’s biscuits were added as a thickener. It was a tasty meal that could feed a whole ship from one pot.”

More Indians are taking personal loans to travel and meet vacation-related expenses, according to Madhavan Menon, executive chairman of Thomas Cook India. 

Air India has entered into an interline partnership with Bangkok Airways that will allow the Tata Group-owned airline’s passengers connections to 10 Southeast Asian destinations beyond the Thai capital. 

Chinese conglomerate Fosun International is hoping its vacation business segment will pull it out of a slump.

Indian airlines are expected to record a consolidated loss of $1.6 to 1.8 billion in the financial year 2023-24 ending March 31, 2024, according to aviation consultancy CAPA India. The full-service carriers are predicted to incur a loss of $1.1-$1.2 billion. With a net induction of 132 planes next fiscal, Indian airlines are estimated to take the total fleet of all carriers to around 816 aircraft. However, more than 100 aircraft from different Indian carriers are grounded as a result of supply chain and other issues. Highlighting the potential for growth in aviation, India’s civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that it was time for India to look at manufacturing aerospace products. He added that the aggregate fleet size of domestic carriers is estimated to reach around 2,000 aircraft over the next five to seven years. He claims that by the end of this year, up to 15 Flying Training Organizations (FTOs) could be established, bringing the total number of such organizations to 50 from the current 35. He emphasized the expansion of the drone industry, stating that it is projected to reach a value of approximately $40 billion by 2030 and produce about 250,000 million employees. All industries have an S-shaped evolution curve, and the minister noted that India is currently in the “infancy and growth phase” of its civil aviation industry.

Take it easy, seems to be the mantra for Indian travelers as they plan their summer getaway for the upcoming holiday season. Shedding light on summer travel trends, online travel company MakeMyTrip observed that the average number of room nights per booking for the ongoing April-June quarter has increased for both domestic and outbound holiday packages, hinting at the fact that travelers prefer relaxed itineraries. “The average nights booked for outbound packages for the summer quarter is 27 percent higher than last year’s corresponding period, and almost 85 percent higher than the pre-pandemic average,” said Rajesh Magow, co-founder and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip. In domestic packages, too, MakeMyTrip observed a 54 percent increase in average room nights booked this year over the corresponding period in 2019. “The preference for relaxed itineraries has positively impacted average per-passenger spend. Travellers are seeking experience-led travel, resulting in more bookings with pre-booked activities,” Magow said. And even asinternational airfares from India have shot up, with some sectors witnessing an increase of over 50 percent compared to last year, Indian travelers are still considering summer travel. And then of course, there are the visa delays. MakeMyTrip notes that although Indians are interested in traveling to Europe, the top five destinations preferred by them are short-haul international locations — Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Maldives, and the United Arab Emirates. On the domestic travel front, Goa, Kochi, Srinagar, Dehradun and Leh are the most sought-after destinations for MakeMyTrip users. “India’s rainbow offering of diverse cultures and landscapes, offering varied destinations to travellers, is coming to the fore in our booking mix,” said Magow. MakeMyTrip has also been witnessing strong traction for pilgrimage destinations such as Puri, Varanasi, Rishikesh, and Vrindavan. A trend that Oyo had also noted last year based on its booking data

Before the pandemic, solo travelers accounted for roughly a third of hotel bookings by inbound travelers. But a push for social interaction and India’s growing reputation as a couples getaway has since led families and couples to take a majority share of inbound bookings, according to travel tech firm RateGain Travel Technologies’ India Inbound Travel Trends report. Family hotel bookings have increased from 4 percent in the first quarter of 2019 to 10.2 percent in the first quarter of 2023. France and Spain are the top origins for families visiting India. Solo bookings have significantly declined in recent years — from 41.6 percent in the first quarter of 2019 to only 6.6 percent in the first quarter of 2023. The report studies travelers’ behavior from nine countries, including the U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Germany and France. We wonder where the inbound business travelers have gone. Here’s another startling statistic from the RateGain report: the share of female travelers visiting India from developed countries has increased to 49 percent over the past five years. While the share was a little more than 33 percent of all travelers between January and March 2018, it rose by 50 percent to occupy 49 percent of the total share of international travelers between January and March 2023.

Dubai welcomed 4.67 million international overnight visitors in the first quarter of 2023, compared to 3.97 million tourists during the same period in 2022, according to the latest data published by the Department of Economy and Tourism. This marks a 17 percent year-on-year growth and the city’s best first quarter performance since the pandemic. The number of visitors in in the first quarter was just two percentage points short of pre-pandemic volume of 4.75 million tourists that arrived in Dubai in the first three months of 2019. Dubai’s traditional source markets in its key regions continued to perform strongly during the first quarter of the year. The Gulf as well as the Middle East and Northern Africa region collectively contributed 29 percent of total volumes, while Western Europe accounted for 22 percent of tourism arrivals, and South Asia accounted for 16 percent of total international visitation. “The tourism sector is not only the strongest pillars of our economy but also a key enabler of Dubai’s distinctive role in the world as a bridge between markets, cultures and regions,” said Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai and chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai. The crown prince said Dubai would continue to introduce new initiatives to achieve its goal of becoming the world’s best place to live, visit, work and invest in. “The first quarter has set us off on a very strong trajectory for the year and is driving us closer towards realizing the vision of making Dubai the most visited and re-visited destination,” said Helal Saeed Almarri, director general of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism.

Using reusable water bottles or shopping bags, traveling outside of peak season and opting for walking, biking, or taking public transport are only some of the ways in which Indian travelers are integrating sustainability into their vacation planning, reveals Booking.com’s latest Sustainable Travel Report. In a bid to save water, 55 percent of travelers reuse their towels multiple times, up 21 percent from 2022. As more travelers are swearing by the ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ mantra, 57 percent of them brought their own reusable water bottles, up by 12 percent since 2022; 52 percent of individuals are utilizing reusable bags; and 44 percent recycle garbage while traveling. When it comes to transportation, 51 percent of Indian travelers now plan their sightseeing which allows them to walk, use bicycles or take public transportation. Looking to further reduce their impact, 41 percent decide to go off-peak to avoid overcrowding, up 5 percent since 2022. Additionally, the ‘buy local’ ideology is gaining popularity amongst travelers on vacation with 52 percent respondents favoring small, independent stores. “To help travelers in their sustainability journey, Booking.com has taken measures to help not only travelers but also local communities and the environment. This includes awarding thousands of properties in India and globally with the Travel Sustainable Badge, the ability to compare the CO2 emissions for different flight options or being able to find and book greener taxi options,” said Santosh Kumar, country manager of India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia at Booking.com. 

Getting its first overhaul in 14 years, online travel agency Cleartrip unveiled a revamped version of its booking tool for agents. With what Cleartrip describes as a user-friendly design and round-the-clock support center, AgentBox 2.0 enables travel agents to book over 100 airlines, more than 500,000 hotels, exclusive holiday packages, group bookings, and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions. “While the earlier version, first introduced in 2009, was more about making agents familiar with online adoption, the upgraded tool focuses heavily on the backend stack, offering a suite of products including flights, hotels, packages, buses and trains,” said Sukesh Shetty, head of B2B at Cleartrip. One of the reasons why the tool was never upgraded after 2009, he said, was because the company was so extensively concentrated on business-to-consumer that business-to-business was just an ancillary product for Cleartrip. “We want to be a catalyst in agents’ growth and not just another platform provider,” Shetty added. Additionally, Cleartrip registered 70 percent growth in monthly agent transactions and onboarded over 5,000 agents in the financial year 2022. The company also reported a 200 percent surge in summer travel bookings compared to the same period last year.

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