Days before the Lok Sabha elections were held in Mumbai on April 30,political parties and social activists alike had begun to warn of low voterturnout. Offices would be shut that day, and May 1 was Maharashtra Day,followed by the weekend -- just the excuse Mumbaikars need for a shortvacation. Little surprise, fewer than 45 per cent of them turned out to casttheir vote.

Indians are increasingly choosing short and frequent holidays -- domestic orinternational -- of four or five days, over the earlier once-a-year longholiday, according to travel agents and portals. These are now, incresingly,single-destination trips organised around long weekends.
"Because of work pressure and city stress, we have seen this wave ofpeople taking long weekends or four- and five-day trips every quarter,"said Mercury Travels' executive vice-chairman Ashwini Kakkar.

The economic slowdown has put a premium on both time and money. Not only havepeople turned wary of spending on travel, many have to multitask at work, whichleaves little time for a long holiday. This makes short breaks around longweekends the best option.

On an average, travel operators have witnessed year-on-year growth of 20-35 percent in the demand for these quick trips. Cleartrip.com, another travel portal,has seen a 15-18 per cent rise in bookings for weekend trips, while 55-60 percent of Yatra.com's holiday bookings fall in this segment.

MakeMyTrip.com vice-president (Retail and Business Development) Amit Sabarwalsaid the uncertainty all around has made people dump elaborate planning forspontaneous holiday decisions. Adds a manager from Deloitte India: "Peopleare breaking up what was earlier a single destination into multipledestinations, and taking more vacations." Thus, while earlier people madelong trips to cover Singapore and Malaysia together, now they prefer a four-daytrip to one of the two destinations.

Both traditional and online travel companies have been quick to tailor packagesthat are ideal for short trips, leaving the tourist with a choice to travelmore frequently rather than splurge on a single long trip. Thus, tie-ups withhotels and resorts close to cities are being ramped up and cheaper rates inplaces like Dubai and Bali are being leveraged to the hilt.

"Traffic to Southeast Asia and West Asia is due to the decrease inairfares and hotel costs. Dubai's hotel tariffs, for example, have gone downowing to the overcapacity there," said Le Passage to India ManagingDirector Arjun Sharma.