IPL 2024: ‘20-25% surge in demand for travel this year, most bookings for…,’ ixigo shares full data

In this season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), more Indians want to travel to the venues to watch the matches live, data shared by online travel application ixigo.

According to Aloke Bajpai, chairman, managing director and group CEO at ixigo said that they have witnessed a 20-25 per cent surge in demand for travel to IPL venues this year.

"There is a high demand for match destinations like Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai," he said.

"Majority of the bookings are happening between 0-3 days before the match, indicating fans are booking tickets at the last minute despite higher airfares."

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The data showed that on March 22, when Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) clashed with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Chennai, the flight searches on the portal had gone up 33 per cent month-on-month.

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Similarly, demand for flights to Lucknow had increased by 29 per cent when Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Gujarat Titans (GT) were to clash there on April 7.

On March 24, GT clashed with MI in Ahmedabad. On that day, there was a 14 per cent MoM increase in flight searches.

On April 5, there was a 20 per cent surge in the demand for flight tickets to Hyderabad when CSK and Sunrisers Hyderabad had a match there.

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The data shared also showed that the Mumbai saw the maximum number of flight and hotel searches in April 2024.

The other top host cities with the maximum number of flight and hotel searches were Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

"Fans from across the globe are flocking to India, eager to witness live matches and soak in the electrifying energy of cricket," the company said.

"This craze of cricket has led to a massive influx of visitors flocking, causing a significant spike in online searches and travel bookings for the host cities."