NEW DELHI: Indian travellers are taking advantage of aggressive deals from travel companies, delivering record year-on-year growth. As a result, monsoon season this year surpassed the earlier summer season in terms of booking growth.

“Average daily searches for airline bookings grew by 27% year-on-year for domestic and 15% for international destinations for monsoon travel,” said Balu Ramachandran, head of air and distribution at Cleartrip, speaking to the Economic Times.

“Year-on-year growth for monsoon travel has surpassed summer travel growth for this year,” he added.

“People are looking at heading out to relish the lush greens and rejuvenating spells of drizzle and rain,” Ramachandran claimed. The proof, he said, was a 20% year-on-year increase in monsoon travel through Cleartrip this year.

Challenger brand Yatra.com saw 68% growth in flight bookings for the season compared to last year. Travel has grown and accommodation has gone with it, as hotel bookings through Yatra grew 300%.

“The traffic is being driven by airlines announcing sales in advance to stimulate early booking,” explained Sharat Shall, COO of B2C, Yatra.

The trend is not isolated to these two brands. In July, the Hindustan times reported that overall more and more Indians are flying to international destinations in the monsoon season, with 60% more Indians travelling abroad during the monsoon than last year.

Airlines including SpiceJet, Indigo, Vistara, and Air Asia all promoted sales. On average, the Economic Times said, flight fares were 21% lower than the past 30 days.

India’s sway as a tourist nation is growing. According to a May report from United Nations World Tourism Organisation, reported by Media India, the country’s outbound travellers have the potential to grow to 50 million by 2020.

Data sourced from Economic Times, Hindustan Times, Media India; additional content by WARC staff.