Mobile phones and online bookings are making drastic changes to the leisure-travel patterns of Indians who now increasingly turn to the smart phones for booking flights and hotel accommodation.

For instance, the package tours, the mainstay of budget travellers for such a long time, are getting unbundled with travellers preferring to book flights, hotel rooms, cabs and local sight-seeing to take advantage of the flash sales announced by airlines and hotels.

The disrupting trend, noticed a year ago, is gathering momentum and is turning out to be a disadvantage for package tour operators and travel agents, points out Subramanya Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer at Cleartrip, an online travel service provider.

“Travellers are now keen on taking advantage of the incredible flash price-cuts announced by airlines and hotels at the last minute which they can access through their mobile phones,” Sharma told BusinessLine . “Since flights and hotel rooms make up nearly 60 per cent of the budget of a leisure traveller, the last-minute price cuts offered by hotels and airlines make huge differences between the package tour price and the individual bookings.”

Sharma said the trend was observed in an analysis of transaction data at Cleartrip. The data also threw up interesting other trends. The last-minute (from the same day to within a week, or 0-7 days) bookings at hotels and for different modes of transport by non-leisure travellers are growing because of the mobile usage. For example, a visitor to a city can compare the rates and price-cuts offered by hotels in the city just a few minutes before checking in and can pick the best deals — thanks to the mobile.

There are also other travel behaviour changes. The weekend getaway is becoming popular, particularly in the 25-35 age group. The number of vacations a year is also increasing because of the cheaper options for transportation and accommodation, mostly made possible by access through smart phones. However, the vacation period is shrinking and the average number of hotel stay is also coming down.

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