BUS TRAVELLERS CHOSE PILGRIMAGE OVER PARTY AS TIRUPATI BEAT GOA IN DEC 2020

AbhiBus, the largest online bus travel aggregator, witnessed bus bookings for Tirupati overtaking Goa in December 2020. The online bus travel aggregator has witnessed a 60% rise in bus bookings to Tirupati in December 2020 over December 2019, wherein there has been a 10% spike in the Goa route. The online bus aggregator has witnessed a 136% month on month spike in engagement in December 2020 with over 50,000 online bus bookings through its platform abhibus.com and mobile apps.

This development is a result of gradual easing in the lockdown wherein people started traveling across states that were restricted otherwise in the past 6-7 months. Bookings to Tirupati have seen a considerable increase with around 1,000 average daily bookings from Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bangalore, Anantapur and Kurnool. Travelers to Goa have mostly been noticed from Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad.

Sharing his insight to this exponential spike in engagement during December, Rohit Sharma, Chief Operating Officer of Abhibus said, “We were expecting an inevitable spike during the winters as the lockdown has eased and the weather too is travel friendly. Although, the Tirumala authorities have capped daily darshans to 30,000-35,000 per day compared to usual pre-Covid average of 90,000 per day, sentiments and faith in pilgrimage visit played a critical role in this recent spike as everyone’s life was paused during the lockdown and people started travelling extensively post in September 2020.”

Since the lockdown was eased in September 2020, Abhibus witnessed a 32% and 36% month on month increase in bookings to Tirupati in October and November 2020, specifically during the Festive season. It has also recorded a 10% to 15% further spike in bus bookings during the weekends. 70% of travellers to Tirupati have booked their returns within two days of stay, wherein 80% of travellers to Goa have booked their return on Abhibus’ platform within four days of stay

On the other hand, Tirupati is now just an hour away for residents of Kalaburagi and neighbouring districts as StarAir commenced flights between the two cities. Every year, thousands of tourists and pilgrims fly to Tirupati from Kalaburagi. They can now cover the distance of around 620 km in just an hour compared to the 11 hours needed via other modes of transportation, he said.

Moreover, as the flight service operates under the RCS-UDAN scheme, the company is providing inaugural flight tickets starting at just Rs 999, he said.