Booking.com has seen double-digit growth from the sports tourism segment and expects the trend to continue with the start of the ICC Cricket World Cup on Thursday, said Santosh Kumar, country head,Indian sub continent and Indonesia of Booking.com on Tuesday.
Kumar said there is a significant rise in inbound travel with flight searches from cricket-playing nations including Australia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and UK showing 15 per cent year-on-year growth between October 1 to November 20.
Seven out of the ten most searched destinations from October 1 to November 20 are the World Cup host cities.
Most searched destinations
Booking.com is the official accommodation partner of the ICC World Cup and is launching a television commercial for promotions featuring cricket stars Rohit Sharma, Jos Buttler and Glen Maxwell. The travel e-commerce company has been investing in sports and other mega events such as pride parades for brand building and sales.
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Apart from sports segment, Booking.com is seeing growth in religious, spiritual and wellness tourism in India.
“India is one of the priority markets for us. 2023 is significantly better for us than last year. We have seen a rise in short-haul and regional tourism. Traffic to Vietnam has grown. Despite limited direct flights we have seen growth in travel from India to Indonesia,” he said.