Post-pandemic revelry: Why home is the best place to party this New Year’s Eve

With the spirit of the New Year’s Eve enveloping everyone and government lifting all Covid-19 restrictions, imposed two-and-a-half years ago, Mumbaikars are out to reclaim a lifeline that was rudely compromised – to have a good time

Mumbai: With the spirit of the New Year’s Eve enveloping everyone and government lifting all Covid-19 restrictions, imposed two-and-a-half years ago, Mumbaikars are out to reclaim a lifeline that was rudely compromised – to have a good time.

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Hotels are running nearly full with exorbitant room rates, just as airlines have recorded a sharp rise in passenger footfall, breaching the pre-Covid average.

Prices of some of the prominent hotels between December 31, 2022, and January 1, 2023, range between ₹18,000 to ₹77,000 plus taxes, per night (See box). “There’s almost a 95 per cent occupancy in all hotels, which is expected to increase in the coming days,” said Dilip Datwani, president of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI). “Prices have gone up by nearly 25 per cent over regular rates.”

Harmeet Bedi, senior director, JLL Hotels and Hospitality Group concurred, and elaborated, “The segment mix differs from micro-market to micro-market. South Mumbai properties, such as the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers, The Oberoi, Trident and North Mumbai properties, such as Taj Land’s End, JW Marriott, Juhu, witness additional demand from NRIs as well as those in the city looking to celebrate.” He added the new Jio World Centre in BKC, hosting conferences and events, has benefitted the hotels around the area not just over mid-week, but also weekends. “Even some of the South Mumbai hotels are getting the traffic from Jio Centre events.”

Time to party

Apart from staycations, tony parties are another draw for revellers. Ticket booking website BookMyShow has released the most sought-out events over the weekend. The Lalit Mumbai, in Sahar, is hosting New Year’s Eve parties at five different venues in their hotel, with ticket prices starting at ₹3599, per person. The ‘NYE 2023 Bollywood Bash’, at Novotel Hotel, in Juhu, starts at ₹5999 per person. Popular brand Hamley’s has set up a carnival at Jio World Drive, BKC, for families on December 31, with tickets priced at ₹2499, for an individual.

Anil Makhija, COO, Live Entertainment and Venues, BookMyShow, has observed a “thunderous response” among moviegoers, live event aficionados and those seeking on-demand online content. The booking website curated specialised sets of events for Christmas and is doing so for the New Year’s Eve.

“With about 1500 events spanning a range of entertainment genres, we are looking at footfalls ranging between 50,000-75,000 across multiple cities in India. We expect a growth of almost 30 per cent in occupancy levels across event categories, compared to 2019,” said Makhija.

High flyers

Likewise, passenger footfall for domestic and international flyers have risen exponentially, and it is likely that the final week of December will touch a new post-Covid peak.

Network Thoughts, a website tracking aviation network trends, reported on December 24, the airlines in India carried 4,35,500 domestic passengers across 2,904 flights – higher than the pre-Covid average. Online travel booking website ixigo, marked the top four international destinations of the season from Mumbai as Dubai, Maldives, Bangkok and Doha, while top domestic destinations Mumbaikars are travelling to are Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Goa.

Another online travel operator, Cleartrip.com, said Goa, Shimla Coorg, Udaipur and Jaipur were the popular destinations for holiday makers. It also noted Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok, Pattaya and Patong as popular international destinations with average stay in four-star and five-star hotels ranging between 40 per cent for domestic and 60 per cent for international travellers.

While domestic airfares have gone up, international tickets are cheaper, compared to December 2021. “Fares from Mumbai to popular domestic destinations have increased by 15-20 per cent year on year due to peak travel demand. However, unlike domestic fares, travels to international destinations like from Mumbai to Dubai and Bangkok are actually cheaper than last year with one-way fares seeing a significant dip. This is because lot more inventory has opened up on international sectors this year compared to last year,” said Aloke Bajpai, Group CEO and Co-Founder, ixigo.

The average one-way fare between Mumbai-Kochi in December saw an increase by nearly 35 per cent – a ticket that cost ₹7406 in December 2021, sold at ₹11423 this year. The average cost of Mumbai-Jaipur travel has also been up by nearly 26 per cent – a ticket that sold at ₹5517 in December last year is priced at ₹7524 this year. The third highest price increase for domestic destinations was on the Mumbai-Delhi circuit, which saw a sharp rise by nearly 21 per cent – from ₹5944 last December to ₹7516 now.