Hyderabad, Kolkata among OYO's most-booked cities: 5 things to know

Hyderabad was the most booked city in India followed by Bengaluru in 2023, according to hospitality tech platform OYO's Travelopedia 2023. "Hyderabad emerged as the most booked city in India followed by Bangalore, Delhi, and Kolkata... Smaller towns like Gorakhpur, Digha, Warangal, and Guntur experienced the highest year-on-year growth in bookings compared to 2022," it said.

Travelopedia 2023 also stated that Uttar Pradesh was the most visited state in the year, followed by Maharashtra. This was followed by Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh. The Travelopedia 2023 is based on the global booking data of OYO, which has more than 93 million users across India, the UK, the US, Indonesia, Malaysia, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and the rest of Asia and Europe.

Among leisure destinations, OYO said Jaipur took the lead as the most visited in 2023 followed by Goa, Mysore, and Puducherry. On the other hand, Puri secured the top spot as the most booked spiritual and pilgrimage destination, followed by Amritsar, Varanasi, and Haridwar. "Lesser-known spiritual destinations like Deoghar, Palani, and Govardhan also witnessed a significant growth in visitors compared to 2022," OYO added.

The Travelopedia 2023 found that September 30, 2023, stood out as the most booked day, while May 2023 claimed the title for the month with the highest bookings. "Notably, the period from September 30 to October 2 recorded the highest bookings among all long weekends in the year," it added.

OYO Global Chief Service Officer Shreerang Godbole said, "2023 stood out as a distinctive year for the travel industry, representing a potential return to complete normalcy after the challenges posed by COVID." However, he said, "The pandemic-induced trend of exploring domestic destinations continues to dominate. Globally, leisure destinations are at the forefront of travel growth, and in India, we also observed a noteworthy contribution from business travel."