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Festive spirit fuels travel: Indians seek getaways for Holi and Easter
Mumbai: With Holi (25 March) and Good Friday (29 March ) just a few days apart, Indian travellers are seizing this opportunity and exploring both domestic and international destinations for this festive break. Booking.com, connecting travellers with the widest choice of incredible places to stay, reveals the travel insights of Indian travellers for the upcoming festive break.
From exploring vibrant cities to soaking in the cultural festivities, Indians are seeking diverse experiences to make the most of their time off. According to Booking.com data, besides metros, some of the most searched leisure destinations include Udaipur, Jaipur, Goa, Lonavala and Manali.
Spiritual destinations are also experiencing a surge in demand, with Vrindavan, known for its Holi celebrations, emerging as the top five most searched destinations in India, alongside destinations like Rishikesh, Puri and Varanasi.
Top 10 most searched domestic destinations for Indian travellers travelling from March 23-31, 2024
Mumbai
Bengaluru
Udaipur
New Delhi
Vrindavan
Jaipur
Goa
Rishikesh
Puri
Varanasi
Exploring international getaways
Closer to home international destinations like Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Bali and Hanoi are also gaining traction as popular travel choices during this period.
Top 10 most searched international destinations by Indian travelling internationally from March 23-31, 2024
Dubai
Singapore
Bangkok
Makkah (Saudi Arabia)
London
Paris
Kuala Lumpur
Bali
Tokyo
Hanoi
Booking.com, country manager for India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia Santosh Kumar said, “Long weekends and festivities offer Indians the perfect opportunity to unwind and escape the daily grind with a short getaway. Our Travel Predictions 2024 research revealed that 85% of Indian travellers feel more alive when they are on vacation and we are thrilled to see the surge in travel demand for the Holi and Easter weekend. As travel enthusiasm continues to grow, Booking.com remains committed to making it easier for everyone to experience the world and make the most of this festive period by providing them with flights, rental cars, attractions and of course unique places to stay.”
Methodology
This release looks at search sessions between 22-02-2024 and 02-03-2024, with check-in dates between 23-03-2024 and 31-03-2024
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IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
