Diwali marketing typically speaks to family gatherings, festive rituals and a full house. Pickyourtrail is taking a different route: a campaign that asks couples to use the long weekend for an international holiday built around time with each other.
What Pickyourtrail is doing
The personalised international-travel brand has launched a Diwali campaign built on curated itineraries for two across short-haul international destinations. Instead of the usual festive calendar—family visits, social commitments, packed schedules—the offer is positioned around “us time”: slower, private trips with upgraded stays.
Couples can choose five-to-six-night trips and add one or two days of leave to stretch the long weekend, according to the brand. The itineraries lean into private villas, overwater rooms and boutique properties, with add-ons such as private dinners, sunset cruises and couples’ spa sessions.
The data behind the campaign
Pickyourtrail says its festive push is grounded in its own search and booking patterns. Couple-travel searches during the Diwali period are up approximately 12–15% compared with previous months, while couple bookings for festive dates have risen 7–10% year on year.
- 70% of Diwali couple bookings go to Maldives, Bali and Thailand
- 2x growth in interest for Sri Lanka and Mauritius
- ₹2 lakh average spend per couple
- 5–6 nights typical trip length, often extended with one or two days of leave
- 17–20% year-on-year increase in spending on experiences
Why this matters for marketers
This is not a generic festive sale. Pickyourtrail is segmenting by motivation: more than half of travelling couples want slower, more relaxed holidays, and around 30% cite milestone moments such as anniversaries or a first Diwali after marriage. That insight lets the brand speak to a specific emotional need—reclaiming time—rather than broadcasting a universal “festive offers” message.
Spend patterns also show where margin is moving. Couples are upgrading accommodation and paying more for experiences, including Diwali dinners at Indian restaurants or celebrations organised by resorts. For travel and lifestyle marketers, the practical step is to build around existing add-on behaviours instead of pushing packed sightseeing schedules.
What the CMO says
Janani Kandaswamy, Chief Marketing Officer at Pickyourtrail, points to a clear customer wish to reclaim some of the festival for themselves. “What we are seeing from our customers is a clear wish to reclaim some of that time for themselves,” she said. With the long weekend making short international trips more doable, the campaign frames travelling together as a legitimate way to mark the season.
For marketers, the transferable idea is small and sharp: use first-party data to find the audience that finds a crowded festival exhausting, then give them a specific alternative. Segmentation by motivation can turn an occasion-driven sale into a stronger acquisition story.
Source: MediaNews4U
