Swine flu may be among the most Googled by Indians, but apart from a brief lull in the Mumbai-Pune circuit last week, domestic travel seems to be back to normal, say travel portals. Yatra.com reported 20-25 per cent cancellation – mostly in the Mumbai-Pune route – up from their daily average of 6-8 per cent. Makemytrip.com too saw a 20 per cent dip in air traffic inflow to Pune last week.
“But since the I-Day weekend, things are back to normal. In fact, we saw a good 15-20 per cent jump in traffic on our site compared with last August,” said Keyur Joshi, COO and co-founder, Makemytrip.com.
Yatra.com reported a higher rate of cancellation among air travelers than those traveling by train or buses last week. “That could be because air travelers tend to be more aware. Besides, there is the perceived risk of being more vulnerable since it’s the same air being circulated in a flight,” says Dhruv Shringi, CEO and co-founder of Yatra.com.
Last week also saw an increase in traffic outflow from Pune – air traffic went up by 12-13 per cent reports Makemytrip.com. The site saw a 5-10 per cent drop in overseas holidays too last week, but things seem fine this week. Bus travel portal Redbus.in had an interesting observation: “We have seen that people increasingly prefer to travel by non-AC buses due to swine flu. In some regions such as Chennai, the cost of non-AC buses has shot up by 20-30 per cent owing to the demand,” says Phanindra Sama, CEO of Redbus.in.Given the extensive media coverage of the pandemic, travel portals were expecting much worse. “We had beefed up our call centres to handle increased queries, but luckily, we didn’t see any dramatic reactions to what we now call ‘media flu’,” said Joshi.Yatra.com plans to roll out mailers to temper down the panic. “More deaths are caused by regular flu than swine flu, but no one reports that,” says Shringi. Makemytrip has already begun sending out mailers to clarify myths about swine flu to their members.
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