Cricket World Cup increased the shine of travel companies, companies from Kolkata, Gharmashala to Lucknow will become rich.

Cricket World Cup fever has started appearing everywhere. After aviation and hotel industry, sales of travel companies have started increasing. The shine of companies from Lucknow to Kolkata is increasing.

The pitch is completely ready for the ICC Cricket World Cup matches in India this week. On the other hand, travel and tourism companies are also eyeing this jackpot. Moreover, most of the companies are going a step ahead and designing packages for the cricket fans who are inquiring about the surrounding areas after the matches.

Experts say that apart from the increase in flight bookings and hotels, there has also been a sharp increase in apartment and homestay rentals. Daniel D'Souza, President and Country Head (Holidays), SOTC, said that we have created combo packages which include camping, trekking and paragliding in Dharamshala; Food Trail in Lucknow and Kolkata; Gujarat includes exciting experiential elements like safari and wellness etc.

Increase in demand

Thomas Cook has created a hub-and-spoke program to deliver experiences in match destinations and their surrounding areas. Rajeev Kale, President, MICE and Country Head, Holidays, MICE, Visa-Thomas Cook India, said their data reflects high demand across segments like multi-generational families, millennials, Gen-Z, couples and corporates.

According to experts, there is a lot of demand for the finals and semi-finals, especially in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata. After this are Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Dharamshala, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Pune. OYO Chief Merchant Officer Anuj Tejpal said that we are seeing more trend for mid-premium to premium hotels. To meet this demand, we have added 500 new hotels across all host cities.

The World Cup starts from October 5 and India will start its campaign against Australia on October 8 in Chennai. After about a week there was a face to face with Pakistan in Ahmedabad. The semi-finals will be held on 15 November in Mumbai and on 16 November in Kolkata. The final will be played on 19 November in Ahmedabad.

Air tickets become expensive

Before the matches, EasyMyTrip has seen a 46 percent increase in searches for travel and tickets. Nishant Pitti, CEO of EaseMyTrip, said even booking flight tickets to the host city three months in advance has become very expensive. Pitti said hotel fares are very high during matches, with October and November seeing an increase of around 30-60 per cent compared to normal fares on routes like Delhi and Mumbai.

200 to 300 percent increase in tariff

SOTC Travel has witnessed over 100 per cent growth in travel demand among cricket lovers across various regions during the upcoming October-November period. D'Souza said, an increase of about 200-300 percent is being seen in hotel tariffs, especially in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Kolkata. Kale said, SOTC's subsidiary, Thomas Cook India, is also seeing 80-100 per cent increase in demand in the months of October-November compared to last year. Match day bookings are continuously increasing in Ahmedabad, residential bookings including hotels and homestays have increased by 200 percent.