IntrCity SmartBus witnesses surge in festive travel in India

IntrCity SmartBus plans to deploy an increased fleet during November and December 2022

IntrCity SmartBus, one of the largest operators of tech-enabled fleet of inter-city buses, estimates that Inter-city mobility will cross pre-pandemic levels of 50 million daily travellers by the end of 2022. The company says it witnessed approximately 20-25 pc higher bookings during this festive season than the same timeline across functional travel & leisure travel.

In the first half of 2022, IntrCity SmartBus says it has grown 1.8 times, with revenues nearing USD 45 million on an annualised basis and that it also turned profitable, recording an operational profit during that period. While, the overall inter-city bus industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 15 pc, the company says it is expecting a 60-70 pc growth from the same time last year in 2021, says a press release issued by IntrCity SmartBus.

 Trends witnessed during Diwali 2022

According to the press release, the intercity travel in India has reached pre-Covid19 levels in most of the routes across India with some routes crossing the 2019 levels, indicating what is popularly termed as vengeance travel or pent up demand.

“The Indian traveller is better prepared than ever to explore within India, further supported by “work from anywhere” alternatives now that all travel restrictions have been removed and people have more flexibility at work. Besides, a segment of travellers who are considering spiritual travel or a return trip to their hometown contribute to the travel reverberation,” says the press release.

A noticeable surge was also seen in and across Goa as around 7,000-10,000 daily travellers were reported headed to the destination during the Diwali break. Other tourist destinations such as Tirupati and Manali are expected to grow more than 2 times as compared to the last year. The press statement says that there is also an  increase in demand across leisure destinations like Kullu, Manali, Shimla and Agra, along with high travel demand on functional routes like Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and travel from Delhi to Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

The company says that for spiritual tourism or pilgrimage travel demand, destinations such as Tirupati, Shirdi, Madurai, Katra, Vaishno Devi are expected to grow this winter. The daily number of people using bus travel between Delhi and Katra is around 2,000 and is expected to grow by 30 pc or more during November & December 2022.

IntrCity SmartBus says that it has established itself as a clear category leader in terms of size, coverage, revenue, earnings and all of this with healthy margins. “Aligning with the summer trend, Dussehra was fairly strong and is 55-60 pc more than 2021, at the same time. IntrCity SmartBus plans to deploy an increased fleet during November and December 2022 to cater to the high demand,” says the company.