Pilgrimage over Party - Bus Travelers Beat the Regular as Tirupati Beat Goa in December 2020


Pilgrimage over Party - Bus Travelers Beat the Regular as Tirupati Beat Goa in December 2020

According to AbhiBus’ report, the company has witnessed bus bookings for Tirupati overtaking Goa in December 2020. The online bus travel aggregator has witnessed a 60 percent rise in bus bookings to Tirupati last December over December 2019, wherein there has been a 10 percent spike in the Goa route.

AbhiBus witnessed a 136 percent month-on-month rise in engagement last month with over 50,000 online bus bookings through its platform and mobile apps. The rise is due to the gradual easing in the lockdown and saw people traveling across states that were restricted otherwise in the past six-seven months. Bookings to Tirupati saw a considerable increase with around 1000 average daily bookings from Hyerabad, Vijayawada, Bangalore, Anantapur & Kurnool, while travelers to Goa have been mostly from Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad.

Rohit Sharma, COO, AbhiBus said, “We were expecting an inevitable spike during the winters as the lockdown has eased and the weather too is travel friendly. Although, the Tirumala authorities have capped daily Darshans to 30,000 - 35,000 per day as compared to usual Pre-COVID average of 90,000 per day, sentiments and faith in Pilgrimage visit played a critical role in this recent spike as everyone’s life was paused during the lockdown and people started traveling extensively post in September 2020.”

Since the lockdown was eased in September 2020, AbhiBus witnessed a 32 percent & 36 percent month-on-month increase in bookings to Tirupati in October and November 2020.