33% of domestic air bookings occur within a 72-hour window: Scapia Report
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In the north, Manali, Shimla, Dharamshala, and McLeodganj in Himachal Pradesh recorded strong demand. Southern travellers headed to Ooty, Kodaikanal, and Munnar in the Nilgiris and Western Ghats, while Darjeeling continued to draw consistent traffic from the East.
Data from Scapia's Summer Travel Trends signals a fundamental market shift: the ‘Micro Holiday Economy.’ For industry stakeholders, from hoteliers to tour operators, this represents a pivot from annual, long-duration travel to a high-frequency, fragmented booking model that requires agile operational strategies. The average domestic trip lasted just 1.7 nights. More than one in three (33%) domestic flight bookings were made within three days (72 hours) of travel and a significant share were decided even later than that.
Data shows a sharp rise in weekend staycations, with young couples choosing luxury hotels in the city they reside in, and groups and families preferring boutique farmhouses and unique properties close to home. Child-friendly and pet-friendly properties recorded sharp growth too, pointing to a broader shift in who is travelling, with whom, and what they are looking for. The planning window for these trips is short. A large share of weekend staycation bookings is made on Friday itself. This is the Micro Holiday Economy in its most concentrated form: travel is no longer blocked out on a calendar month in advance. The decision to spend the weekend somewhere different is made the same week, sometimes the same day.
Duration is no longer a proxy for spend. Despite the brevity of trips, nearly 62% of bookings are captured by luxury (4 and 5-star) segments, with resort demand outpacing traditional hotel bookings.
This summer, domestically, data shows a clear geographic spread this summer. In the north, Manali, Shimla, Dharamshala, and McLeodganj in Himachal Pradesh recorded strong demand, with Dehradun, Rishikesh, and Nainital in Uttarakhand close behind. Southern travellers headed to Ooty, Kodaikanal, and Munnar in the Nilgiris and Western Ghats, while Darjeeling continued to draw consistent traffic from the East.
On the coast, bookings were distributed across a wider set of destinations than in previous seasons. Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Mangaluru, Goa, Puducherry, Udupi, Puri, and Karwar all recorded meaningful volumes, suggesting that the Indian beach break is no longer concentrated around a handful of marquee names.
Spiritual destinations saw 12X growth this summer. Tirupati, Katra, Varanasi, Ayodhya, and Rameswaram all recorded strong demand, pointing to a travel motivation that runs alongside leisure and is growing faster than most conventional categories.
Internationally, established corridors to Bangkok, Phuket, Dubai, and Singapore remained strong. Hanoi and Colombo, however, recorded the fastest growth rates among international destinations on the platform, pointing to an appetite for newer geographies among Indian outbound travellers.
Also, a third of all domestic air bookings on Scapia originated from Tier-2 cities, a figure that reinforces the central finding of this report: the Micro Holiday Economy is not confined to India's large metros. It is a pan-India shift.
Through the summer, search for leisure routes for trains and buses grew by 30% which reflected a positive rise in bookings too.
South India's intercity corridors dominated train and bus bookings. The Hyderabad - Visakhapatnam route stood out on both modes: by train for the Eastern Ghats section with its 40+ tunnels and valley views, and by bus for the coastal NH16 run along the Bay of Bengal. The Mumbai - Ahmedabad Vande Bharat corridor, passing through the Gulf of Khambhat coastline and the Vapi - Surat - Vadodara belt, was among the most booked train routes. Travellers are treating the journey as part of the experience, not a means to an end.
Travel shopping grew significantly this summer, with bags, luggage, and travel apparel among the fastest-growing categories. Two distinct buyer profiles emerged: international travellers over-indexed on accessories, while domestic travellers over-indexed on apparel. Most travel shopping happened over weekends, suggesting that planning, browsing, and buying have merged into a single leisure activity. Getting ready to travel has become part of the travel experience.
DIY trip planning is emerging as the dominant mode. Travellers broadly know what they want and use expert input only for finalisation. The research, the inspiration, and the decision are increasingly self-driven. In the Micro Holiday Economy, the planning is part of the pleasure.
