Airfares to rise 5 percent, hotel rates 6.8 percent in 2020; CWT Report

With India’s strong economic growth fueling demand for business travel, airfares, hotel rates, and ground transport costs are expected to increase in 2020, according to the report of CWT.

whereas fare is likely to grow by five-hitter (in Rupees terms) the hotel rates and ground transport costs are likely to climb up by 6.8% and 4.5% (USD terms), respectively, according to the sixth annual global Travel Forecast published by CWT and GBTA (the Global Business Travel Association) on Wednesday.

“Earlier this year we saw a spike in airfares after Jet Airways ceased its operations in April, thus we’re already at a high base in 2019,” Business-to-Business-for-Employees travel management platform Vishal Sinha, CEO, CWT, India, said quoting the Forecast. He said, with different airlines adding capacity to fill the vacuum, fares have begun to normalize and it’s likely to continue next year.

“However if the rupee weakens against the dollar, Indian carriers may be faced with bigger fuel bills and we might even see that being passed on to travelers,” he added. hotel rates are also expected to rise, because the demand for rooms outpaces supply, especially in secondary cities like Chandigarh, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad, he opined.

“At the same time, the development of mid-tier properties by players like Oyo is also pushing costs upwards,” Sinha added. costs in the global travel industry are likely to slow in 2020, with flights rising a modest 1.2%, hotels rising only 1.3%, and rental car rates up 1 chronicle (in USD terms), according to the annual global Travel Forecast. whereas the global economy is doing well overall and expected to grow a solid 3.6% in 2020 a raft of uncertainties are set to put a damper on pricing, the report added.

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