Celebrating Diwali

Diwali is a religious festival of light observed and celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains among others

The countries that have seen the most flight bookings to India for the period around Diwali are the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, according to analysis conducted by Travelport, a leading technology company serving the travel industry.

As of 14 October 2019, a total of 32,828 advanced bookings had been made through all global distribution systems (GDS) for flights from the United States to India, scheduled between 24 and 30 October 2019. Flight bookings from the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates stood at 22,663 and 20,688 respectively.

Nilo Sirinivasan, Head of Account Management, United Kingdom at Travelport, said: “Diwali is one of the most unique and memorable experiences in the world and has become synonymous with new beginnings for millions of people around the world, regardless of their faith. The five-day festival is a time of homecoming and connecting with family and friends. With almost 1.8 million people identifying themselves as Indian or Mixed Asian and with over 1.2 million Hindus, Sikhs and Jains in the UK, it’s not surprising that so many travellers are choosing to travel to India to experience the festival during this time.”

The ten countries with the largest flight booking volumes to India for the festival period were evenly split across the world; with three countries each from the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and two countries each from the Americas and Europe.

On a volume basis, the Americas saw the most travellers flying into India (49,157; or 32% of total bookings made in the top 10 countries), followed closely by the Middle East (44,831; 29%). Europe (30,354; 19%) and the Asia Pacific (29,093; 19%) rounded out the list.

While some countries in the top 10 list – such as the United States, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia – were those with the largest non-resident Indian (NRI) populations; the list also featured origin countries with smaller NRI populations like Australia, Singapore, Thailand and Germany. Singapore and Thailand were also new entrants to the top 10 list for Diwali, compared to similar analysis Travelport conducted around the Holi festival this year.

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