The second wave of the COVID has started to spread its ugly tentacles again. Businesses are going through the motions, with most of them considerably affected during the first wave. The travel industry has been driven to the wall, and finding it difficult to survive in these pandemic times. So what’s in store for the travel & hospitality industry, especially in India?

There was that hue and cry for COVID vaccines from all quarters everywhere. Loud and deafening it may be, the optimism was short-lived, as another severe wave rocked the entire nation, and ensured more daily infections than the first wave last year. The past few weeks of the travel and tourism industry has been quite tough as the COVID situation has directly impacted the recovery process, particularly the aviation sector. The sudden spikes in Coronavirus cases in India has deteriorated the confidence of the flyers indicating that there is still going to be a big wait ahead. 

If a recent report by brokerage Motilal Oswal is anything to go by, the daily passenger demand fell sharply by nearly 13 percent in the last week of March 2021 against the last week of February 2021.  Similarly, demand further declined by close to 5 percent from March’s last week average. 

Interestingly, the decline in travel demand is felt sharply in cities and states where the government has made RT-PCR test compulsory. It has been seen that there is nearly 10-15 percent correction in future travel bookings spanning the travel sector (flights and hotels) against the month of February. Also, people do not want their kids to voluntarily undergo RT-PCR tests as the process can be painful for them. Industry sources further state that though the cancellations have not increased spectacularly, it is likely that future travel bookings will increase in the months to come when COVID can hit the peak.