Similarly, Air bookings made on Cleartrip Mobile from Kolkata, have seen an exceptional 184% y-o-y growth.  

“Kolkata plans travel on-the-go. At Cleartrip, we’re seeing extraordinary uptake in bookings made from mobile devices. According to Cleartrip’s Insight on Mobile Travel Behaviour in Kolkata, over 35% bookings from Kolkata come from Mobile devices. The mobile growth on hotels for Kolkata has been the highest across the country, and we’re very excited about the adoption of our Mobile app, here,” said Amit Taneja – Chief Revenue Officer at Cleartrip.

Impulse travel lies at the core of Kolkata as we know it. “For Advance Purchase Patterns in Kolkata, we’ve witnessed a steady graph around last-minute travel. A noteworthy highlight in Cleartrip’s insight showed that over 38% bookings from Kolkata happen 0-7 days from the actual date of travel. Pegging travellers from Kolkata as last-minute bookers, this average is pretty close to the National Average of 42% last-minute bookers across India, which indicates that Kolkata travels much at the last minute,” said Taneja of Cleartrip.

Kolkata welcomes Bangkok, London Singapore and Dubai amongst the top 10 International destinations from the city. Other International holiday spots from Kolkata that make it to the top 10 include Phuket, Bali and San Francisco. These top 10 international destinations contribute to a robust 74% of total air segments from Kolkata.

Closer to home, Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi are the top 3 domestic destinations from Kolkata, and the top 10 domestic destinations contribute to 75% of total air segments from Kolkata.

Entrepreneurs, corporates or home-makers, Kolkata knows when and how to take its well-deserved breaks. Weekend Getaways therefore become the perfect ‘power-nap’ in-between hectic, stressful, work-lives. Fortunately, Kolkata is quick in waking up to the benefits of short breaks and extended weekends. While most of the city heads to Darjeeling, Puri and Digha for their weekend break, other destinations like Shantiniketan and Tarapith are also witnessing strong y-o-y growth.

Interestingly, when compared to the State of West Bengal, Cleartrip’s insight shows that Shillong, Balasore and Behrampur together contribute to almost as many room-nights, as Kolkata does alone.