At a time when the country has gone through the second wave of Covid-19 and gradually moving towards normalcy (by following all Covid-19 protocols to control the further spread out of the virus) it is expected that the interstate travel or outstation road trips may pick-up shortly.
While travel was largely need-based (emergency and essential) during the second wave of COVID-19 with workplaces, and tourism slowly beginning to open up, the travel requirements are gradually shifting to leisure and business travel, reveals Savaari Car Rentals, one of India’s leading online chauffeur driven company.
In a communication with Whereabouts, Gaurav Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Savaari Car Rentals says that post pandemic travel is expected to resume broadly across three categories – leisure travel, business travel and essential travel.
“With the ongoing vaccination drive resulting in the decline of the COVID-19 cases, coupled with quarantine tiredness, there is a gradual resumption of leisure travel. Most travellers are opting for shorter weekend trips or city breaks for vacationing at drivable distances from their homes in order to de-stress themselves. Staycations and workations still remain the most popular travel trends as of now,” informed Aggarwal.
While elaborating on the latest travel trends based on the experience of the Savaari Car Rentals, Aggarwal further explains that last four weeks (beginning of unlocking process and easing travel restrictions after second wave of pandemic) have seen a resumption of travel with a resurgence of car rental bookings.
Aggarwal is confident that, “While these are still early days, we believe that 100% recovery to pre-pandemic levels would be completed in the next two weeks. The current trends point to a very quick rebound in car rentals and travel in general.”
While further explaining his point of being optimistic about the growing demand of business and leisure travel activities he further says that the pent up travel desire will slowly release in the form of short weekend getaways or simply a day out near one’s own city. Hence, as soon as people sense it is safe to venture out, they will opt for short, refreshing breaks to cure their ‘cabin fever’ and de-stress themselves.
Savaari users are primarily the segment of people aged 30 to 45, who are fairly well to do, and can afford to spend 20% of their vacation budget on road trips. Another set of customers are the people aged 25 to 35 years who book Savaari for their parents for a trip to the spiritual/religious destinations or relaxing getaways.
“Our primary customers are not the young travellers who go on affordable road trips primarily for adventure. We cater to a slightly older demographic, the ones traveling with family, say a couple, or a couple with a young kid, who prioritise comfort over affordability,” explains Aggarwal.
Savaari has forged strategic partnerships with leading players in the domestic travel ecosystem to provide integrated offerings to domestic travellers, combined with their stay, local tourism, etc. Present in 2000+ cities across the country, Savaari has executed over 500 million kms of road trips over the last 15 years.
