Even as the ongoing West Asia crisis continues to dominate headlines, it is quietly reshaping how Pune travellers are planning their holidays — especially those who had set their sights on the United States this year.
While there are currently no official advisories restricting travel to the US, and flights continue to operate as scheduled, hesitation has begun to reflect in booking patterns.
Travel agents say the most visible shift is not cancellations, but diversion. “Travellers are not cancelling outright, but pausing and waiting for clarity before committing to expensive long-haul plans. People who were keen on holidaying in the US in the summer are now changing their plans,” says Shalak Shah of Samsun Tours LLP.
“Some are simply choosing other destinations like Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa instead of the USA, while others have postponed to see how the situation unfolds. This has impacted group tour bookings for the season as well,” Shah said.
Concerns over halts at Gulf transit hubs
This shift is also being driven largely by concerns around flight routes, many of which traditionally pass through Gulf transit hubs. While major flights continue to operate via regions such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), travellers are increasingly wary. They don’t want to land at airports in the conflict zone.
“Most US-bound travel from India is routed through Gulf carriers,” says Zelam Patil Chaubal, director of Kesari Tours. “Now, because of the uncertainty around that region, travellers are hesitant to take those routes. It’s not a restriction, but a perception issue — people are unsure what could change overnight,” he says.
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She adds that this shift is also impacting airline demand. “European carriers such as Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways are seeing a surge in bookings from India to USA and fares on these routes have nearly doubled due to increased demand,” she says.
That hesitation is directly impacting costs — the second major factor influencing travel decisions.
“Travellers who still want to go to the US are now having to look at alternative routes, and that has increased fares in many cases,” Chaubal explains.
“At the same time, tickets on Gulf routes have become cheaper due to lower demand, but people are not opting for them because of the uncertainty,” he says.
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Shah echoes the same trend. “It’s a double concern — one is price, and the other is unpredictability. Even if a ticket is cheaper, people are asking, ‘What if the flight gets disrupted?’ That question is enough to make them reconsider.”
Pause in air bookings
As a result, booking behaviour has visibly changed across the board. There is a pause says Shah, “Travellers are waiting, watching, and delaying decisions instead of committing in advance.”
For tour operators, this shift is already reflected in group travel numbers. “Whenever something happens globally, the travel industry is the first to be impacted — whether it was Covid or the Kashmir conflict last year or the war now,” says Chaubal. “In the current situation, around 14 to 15 of our group tours planned until the first week of April have been cancelled. Even those who had booked earlier are now evaluating whether to continue or postpone,” he says.
For travellers, the uncertainty is translating into practical compromises. “We had been planning our trip to the US for a long time,” says Sneha Jain, a Pune-based traveller. “We waited months for a visa appointment, and it was approved last November. We were ready to book tickets this March,” Jain says.
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But fixed timelines — especially school vacations — have forced a change in direction. “With the current situation, we can’t keep waiting. Our children have holidays only for a specific period, so we have decided to change our destination,” she says. The family is now planning a trip to Vietnam instead.
What emerges clearly is a shift not in the desire to travel, but in the travel plan. The combination of route uncertainty and rising costs is pushing travellers to rethink long-haul destinations like the US, even in the absence of direct impact.
“There is no panic as such,” Shah says. “But there is definitely caution. And that is enough to change how people are booking. For now, the industry is witnessing a familiar pattern — when uncertainty rises, travellers don’t stop. They simply choose differently,” he adds.
