Domestic air ticket sales have seen a ten per cent drop since the government announced the demonetization move, airline and travel companies told HT. Ticket sales, officials said, had dropped by as much as 15% in the days following the demonetization announcement and the impact was felt more by offline agents in smaller cities.
“While the impact on air travel would be known only in the months to come as most people plan their travel much in advance, bookings did take a significant hit following the announcement. There has been a drop of around 10% in ticket sales,” said an official of a leading budget carrier.
“We did see an impact in the first few days which was around 10-15%. But since then it’s pretty much come back to where we were,” said Sharat Dhall, President, Yatra.com.
“The demonetization move has impacted everything. Ticket sales and tour packages offered by travel agents have been hit hard and inbound tourism has taken a big hit,” said Rajji Rai, chairman, Swift Travels.
Online players are, however, hopeful that the move will add to their business in the times to come. “We might have some short-term hiccups but in the medium to long term this move is going to be a big positive for online players like us because a lot of people were using offline agents to do bookings in cash. If that ‘benefit’ goes away, then they pretty much move over to the online side. Increased penetration will take place with the shift from offline to online,” Dhall said.