Rising optimism amongst travellers is providing domestic travel a considerably required increase! One of the youngest CXOs in the country’s hospitality segment, Harshit Vyas, is an early OYOpreneur and he led OYO’s very first foray into the international market place. In conversation with The The Spuzz Online’s Swapna Raghu Sanand, Harshit Vyas, SVP & COO, Franchisee Business – OYO India and South Asia, shares his crucial insights pertaining to travel trends across the nation.
“COVID-19 has given impetus to domestic travel and the PM’s vision of #DekhoApnaDesh,” Harshit Vyas told The The Spuzz Online.
He cites how leisure destinations – Jaipur, Kochi and Goa – witnessed an uptick through Diwali, “We’ve been witnessing similar trends during other long weekends too. We are sure that the current trend will continue with month-on-month growth. As we anticipate steady growth in bookings in the coming months, we are working towards safe and sanitised stays to every guest who walks through our doors at OYO.”
Notably, OYO has been strengthening their security and hygiene measures with initiatives such as ‘Sanitised Before Your Eyes’ with Sonu Sood and launching a 1-quit resolution for all travel-connected help on the OYO app. This also incorporates COVID-19 testing with some of the major ICMR authorized pathology labs. In addition, the launch of Contactless Check-ins and Yo! Chatbot, enables OYO shoppers to adopt self-serve item attributes.
He cautions, “The pandemic isn’t over yet. It will be too soon for us to comment on the outlook for 2021, however, we’re confident that the rise in bookings will continue month on month.”
In what techniques has COVID-19 redefined leisure travel in India and on what parameters do you count on travellers to define and make their informed choices on exactly where to remain and why?
When we not too long ago carried out our customer survey, we understood that a majority of respondents (57%) wanted to travel for leisure soon after spending months in lockdown and out of these, 61% had currently decided their subsequent travel location.
As India began unlocking, combined with the efforts of the travel, and hospitality market to guarantee security precautions, travel aspirations amongst city-dwellers started increasing, major to enhanced buyer self-confidence. However, security continued to be a best priority for all travellers. This led to the reputation of road trips to nearby hill stations, beach destinations and exploring nearby hidden gems.
Air travel has taken a backseat compared to pre-covid days, having said that, with the vacation season kicking in, there appears to be a steady demand for air travel to domestic destinations as nicely. To sum it all up, shorter distances, longer stays, exploring the unexplored, and staycations are the new leisure travel trends brought about by the COVID disruption. And of course, travel and hospitality in itself have been redefined for the superior, with larger consciousness for hygiene, sanitation, and security at the forefront.
Historically, as we know it, the travel and hospitality ecosystem is a higher touch 1 complete of greetings and gestures. This year, when it comes to security, the tourism market at significant which was 1 of the worst impacted by the pandemic, buckled up, reinvented itself and implemented all the required protocols and measures to allow social distancing, guarantee hygiene and digitise efforts to do away with processes that need physical speak to.
At OYO, we’ve implemented Sanitised Before Your Eyes (an initiative wherein the guest can request hotel employees to sanitise higher touchpoints suitable in front of their eyes), Contactless Check-ins and Traveller Assistance. These efforts combined with the flexibility of cancellations, supplying worth for dollars, high quality stays and seamless experiences give shoppers the ease of thoughts to travel safely.
Will travel and hotel bookings boom additional as we inch closer to Christmas and New Year? Do you see a demographic modify in terms of extended-distance travel preferences now?
Based on OYO’s predictive evaluation, what does 2021 have in shop for travellers in India?
Absolutely. Since Unlock four., we’ve noticed increasing optimism amongst travellers across India through the vacation season, which is a welcome modify for the tourism and hospitality ecosystem. To additional place issues in point of view, as per our Diwali booking trends, we witnessed the intent to book is at just about one hundred% levels as compared to Pre-Covid for shoppers going to OYO platform. Notably, the website traffic is at a lot more than 50%.
When it comes to travel trends, our surveys highlight that the majority of our leisure location bookings are produced by group travellers, followed by solo and organization travellers. Amongst these, group travellers and organization travellers contemplate security as their topmost priority, whereas, solo travellers are a lot more cautious about affordability.
What are OYO’s distinct initiatives for travellers through the new normal?
Over the previous couple of months, we worked towards strengthening our security and hygiene measures, leveraging revolutionary technologies to allow seamless and contactless exchanges. Considering that travel is coming back gradually, when we spoke to our shoppers at a deeper level, we understood that 81% of shoppers stated they would opt for rooms that have been sanitised prior to their personal eyes as opposed to opting for an unused space that has been sanitised prior to. This is what will give them peace of thoughts. And that was it.
We rolled out the Sanitised Before Your Eyes initiative with Sonu Sood, who is not just our brand ambassador but has been and nevertheless is an OYO hotel owner for some time now. This initiative walks the speak by disinfecting the space in front of a guest’s eyes and reassuring them of all the precautionary measures we are taking, so that they can get pleasure from their remain devoid of worries.
We launched a 1-quit resolution for travel help on OYO app. We have also leveraged technologies in a major way to supply meaningful options to shoppers through the new normal.
We launched Contactless Check-ins to do away with processes that could be digitised and Yo! Chatbot, a true-time 24*7 chat assistant. This aids to nudge the buyer to adopt self-serve item attributes rather than get in touch with for queries.