This Holi weekend saw a spurt in demand for bookings made for private buses, cabs etc. As per a study done by Bus seat booking App, Redbus, more than 3 lakh seats were booked with Mumbai -Pune falling among the top routes. Moreover, even the railways are operating special trains this weekend plus people are taking private cabs as well.
According to data provided by redBus – an online bus ticketing platform – there were 3.8 lakh seats booked across the country recorded in just three days ahead of Holi on redBus. The bus operators here in Mumbai claim that 70 percent or 8,400 buses of the total 12,000 private buses that run for tourists and on inter-city routes are under use.
“We have got bookings from Thursday till Sunday for inter-city and inter-state travel during this Holi weekend. More than 70 percent of these tourist buses have been booked across Mumbai and Metropolitan Region,” said Harsh Kotak of Mumbai Bus Malak Sanghatana.
From Mumbai, the majority of these buses are plying to Goa, Mahabaleshwar and Pune for the long Holi weekend. With COVID-19 restrictions more or less withdrawn, movement of people has gained and more and more people are travelling freely; which was subdued in this pandemic over the last 2 years. The upcoming weekend is the first major travel occasion this year, post-waning of the third wave of the pandemic.
Likewise, the demand for private cabs and App-based cab operators too has seen a growth. On March 17, Uber revealed that Mumbai is among the top Indian cities with maximum Uber Intercity trip bookings on its platform in 2022. The popular intercity route for Holi festival that Uber claims includes Mumbai-Alibaug, Mumbai-Lonavala and Mumbai-Nashik.
“Demand for Uber Intercity has exceeded significantly post-pandemic as people opted for more road trips and preferred dotting their calendars with many weekend getaways. In fact, Uber Intercity trips covered more than 3000 routes in 2021 and almost 1 in every 5 intercity riders is a first-time platform user,” said a spokesperson for Uber.
If we look nation-wide 3000 private bus operators and 21 RTC’s gearing up to cater to travellers during the Holi week with 23000 services. The highest demand for travel around Holi in the north is between Delhi and Jaipur. The redBus claims that they have recorded a 14 percent rise in reservations during the Holi week compared to last week. On the redBus platform, Delhi is witnessing the highest growth in ticket sales during the week of Holi, recording about 48.7% higher bookings compared to the previous week. This is followed by Punjab at 41.1%, Gujarat at 32.4% and Madhya Pradesh at 26.4%.
Prakash Sangam, CEO, redBus said, “I think it is safe to say that since the pandemic hit us, this is a new phase where we are witnessing high confidence amongst customers to undertake travel aided by unrestricted access to all parts of the country. This is allowing our partner bus operators to gradually restore full services and we are delighted to witness a 100% inventory recovery in the private bus sector. We are also seeing a rise in bookings from tier-1 cities, which are an indicator of return to full normalcy.”
