new delhi current domestic travel bookings at one of indias largest travel conglomerates thomas cook and group company sotc travel has now surpassed precovid levels seen in 2019 with very few countries open for international tourists and people now eager to safely travel again the demand for domestic tourism has surgedsotc travels domestic business has successfully reached and breached precovid levels domestic leisure travel has witnessed a 30 growth over 2019 for q1 januarymarch period we along with our partners like hotels and airlines have taken all measures required for safe travels in the covid times people have confidence in those steps and have resumed travel to domestic destinations in a big way sotc travel md vishal suri told toileisure holiday destinations are leading the demand with places like kashmir especially gulmarg simla rajasthan coorg munnar kannur and andamans doing very well goa has emerged as a yearround destination for tourists now travel companies old bias towards more lucrative foreign packages is gonebusiness travel though picking up remains limited to essential travel as of now and will gather with vaccination mice meetings incentives conferencing exhibitions tourism is now back in form of smaller groups to domestic destinations in january we organised a fiveday mice trip for 750 delegates to dubai from chennai by following the required protocol and it went off very successfully without any hiccups suri saidamong international destinations dubai and maldives the biggest favourites for indian holidayers seychelles and russia have also opened recently along with egypt and turkey greece is likely to open midmay while covid negative report is mandatory some countries will exempt quarantine to those who have got the complete dose of covid vaccines while designing holiday packages ensuring affordability is a big theme as income levels have fallen during the pandemic like the entire industry hotels and airlines are very keen to recover from the pandemic by attracting customers hence there are no supply side constraints and very aggressive price points are available that enables us to offer affordable packages suri said case in point in prepandemic times maldives used to be a luxury destination for people with deep pockets during covid it started offering price points affordable to the upper middle class toothe pandemic has thrown a new challenge at tour operators by completely changing the holiday trends in india established over past decades holiday season used to begin from midmarch in south and west india with schools closing for breaks north would follow a month later now with large number of children studying in offline modes exam dates shifting and new sessions beginning late the holiday season itself is shifting the travel patterns are changing he said a lot of family travel now happens with the seniors preferring to stay back and not venture out during a pandemicthe government is considering how to open india for foreign tourists sequentially and the travel industry is hoping that happens in time for the winter season we get a sense that foreign inbound tourism could