CHENNAI: April 18, the day Tamil Nadu goes to poll, being a declared holiday and sandwiched between Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday, many people are planning to skip voting and travel to getaway destinations with friends and families. This may have an impact on poll percentage in the city.

The five-day window (April 17- April21) has prompted many to spend the period away from home as reflected in increasing booking trends in domestic and international holidays. People are also making the most of IPL as matches are scheduled on Easter Sunday (Royal Challengers vs Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers vs Knight Riders) and combining it with sightseeing in and around Delhi, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Mohali and Bangalore.

Sudarshan Mohan, who works in a corporate company, and 14 of his friends have decided to skip voting and are planning to travel to Puducherry. “I have voted in the last elections in Chennai. This time I feel that there is no point in voting because I do not see much of a change in things getting done. So I have decided to make the most of the holidays,” Sudarshan said. The group will leave on Wednesday night.

Jaishankar, a private company employee, said many of his colleagues have decided not to vote. “It is not often that one gets holidays for five days in a row. This is a luxury for those who work in private companies.”

Popular domestic destinations include Manali, Ladakh, Sikkim-Darjeeling, Andaman, north-east, Puducherry, Kerala, Andamans, Goa and hill stations like Lonavala, Coorg, Kodaikanal and Uttarakhand. International packages include Dubai-Abu Dhabi, Singapore-Thailand-Malaysia and Mauritius. Exotic and newer destinations like Japan and Korea, Egypt, South Africa, Jordan and East Europe’s Czech Republic-Hungary-Croatia have seen an uptick of over 45% in bookings.

Yatra.com COO(B2C) Sharat Dhall said, “Over the long

, travellers from Chennai are heading out to explore short-haul destinations such as Goa, Puducherry, Talakona waterfalls and Vellore among others. The booking enquires for these destinations have spiked by 31%.”

“People who can’t plan long summer vacation due to work commitments or personal reasons are also planning family outings over the weekend. The travel enquires have soared by 25%,” said Cox & Kings head of relationships Karan Anand.

Rajeev Kale, president & country head, holidays, MICE, Visas- Thomas Cook India, said research by Thomas Cook India highlights that Indians are quintessential workaholics and the trend of shorter and frequent trips within India and overseas has become a norm, and not just with travellers not from metros like Chennai, but increasingly tier 2 cities like Coimbatore, Madurai and Trichy.

People who have already booked trips are going for staycation. Ezeego1 CEO and director Neelu Singh said, “We notice, for the upcoming Easter weekend, the trend of staycation is very popular. People want to travel yet not very far from home.”