Cricket fans are keen to pull up stumps and visit India with flight searches up 15 per cent year-on-year as top cricketing nations travel to the host nation of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 from 5 October to 19 November.
Booking.com data revealed Australia is one of the top five cricketing nations visiting India for ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 with a 31 per cent increase in flight searches to India for October departures.
The top five list of cricketing nations includes the UK, Netherlands, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
One of the tournament’s major sponsors, Booking.com saw a significant rise in inbound travel to India with flight searches from these cricketing nations up 15 per cent year-on-year.
With matches held in stadiums across India, Aussies searched for flights to New Delhi (up 40%), Mumbai (65%) and Bangalore, which registered a whopping 390 per cent increase.
Other Indian destinations searched by Australian users include Jaipur, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Kolkata and Udaipur.
The wide world of sport
The Cricket World Cup interest builds on a year of huge global sporting events that has seen record attendance and interest from international travellers.
This includes the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, hosted by Australia and New Zealand, a welcome boost to tourism.
According to Booking.com, the event’s major online travel sponsor, search demand increased 200 per cent month-on-month from 28 July to 4 August for travel between 11 August and 20 August 2023 for Sydney and Brisbane.