CHENNAI: On the back of cheaper air fares — at least 10% cheaper over the previous year — more people are travelling this summer, than in the past couple of years. Leading travel planners are witnessing 20-25% growth this year driven by demand from smaller towns and cities.

Thomas Cook, which saw a growth of nearly 15% in the past two years, is seeing an over 20% growth in select destinations. “We are leveraging it with more regional language support during travel — such as local food and operators that speak the local language.

Earlier, players like us used to be inaccessible because of language issues. With the recent move, tier-2 and tier-3 customers have gone up,” said Romil Pant, senior VP (leisure travel), Thomas Cook India.

Business from smaller towns and cities now accounts for 45% from 15% a couple of years ago. The falling rupee though is a spot of bother. Travel booking site Ixigo has seen flight bookings increase over three times this summer. “Lower fares (up to 10%) compared to last year are driving sales,” said Aloke Bajpai, co-founder, Ixigo.

Curated tour operators are seeing 18-20% growth, with Africa and Kazakhstan becoming attractive. “We see an increase in the number of walkins.

This year, especially, with summer having long weekends, there are millennials also coming in, as opposed to the family crowd which predominates the summer travel scene,” said travel firm Goomo’s, B2C head Jayatri Dasgupta.

Optical chain Specsmakers CEO Pratik Shah has returned from a holiday in Kazakhstan. Venturing out on his own, Shah joins a bunch of travellers who are exploring offbeat destinations, after research. “We wanted to explore a place that has history and an opportunity for skiing. While we obtained visas from travel companies, we planned the trip on our own,” he said.

More travellers are travelling on their own. “This enables them to spend more time in a destination and experience the local culture, cuisine and also take part in various activities at the destination,” said Karan Anand , head, relationships, Cox and Kings .

Curated tour startup, Pickyourtrail sees single-country travel growing. “Croatia is huge after the series Game of Thrones, New Zealand for selfdrives, Russia for football and Central Europe for music shows,” said Hari Ganapathy, co-founder, Pickyourtrail.

