Brands
Cleartrip Unpacked 2025 shows how Gen Z turbocharged India’s travel boom
MUMBAI: India did not just travel more in 2025. It travelled smarter, faster and with far more attitude. According to Cleartrip Unpacked 2025, the online travel platform’s year-end report, Gen Z emerged as the unlikely engine of the country’s travel boom, driving a staggering 650 per cent jump in bookings and turning cafés, co-working spaces and sunset points across India into unofficial offices and playgrounds.
If there was a single theme to the year, it was value without compromise. Travellers chased affordable stays, flexible plans and app-first bookings, proving that budget-conscious no longer means boring.
At the heart of the shift was Gen Z. Their travel was spontaneous, vibe-led and unapologetically experience-first. Skyline selfies in Dubai, street-food crawls in Kuala Lumpur and long nights in Bangkok made these cities the most sought-after international hotspots. Millennials followed close behind, borrowing Gen Z’s habits with enthusiasm. More than 65 per cent of all bookings were made on the Cleartrip app, while a similar share went to budget and mid-range hotels.
The travel map itself widened. Vietnam emerged as the breakout international destination, recording a 133 per cent rise in traffic, fuelled in part by a flood of social-media travel diaries. Back home, spiritual and nature-led travel held firm. Varanasi and the Andaman Islands saw a steady 20 per cent increase in interest, while Uttar Pradesh topped the domestic charts. Stay searches for Prayagraj tripled and Bareilly jumped fourfold.
Solo travel gathered pace, with Delhi and Bengaluru leading the charge. Travellers from the capital leaned towards Himachal Pradesh, Jaipur and Agra, while Bengalureans escaped to Coorg, Ooty and Kodaikanal, blurring the line between business hubs and leisure gateways.
International confidence was buoyed by features such as visa rejection cover, helping Phuket, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok remain firm favourites. At the same time, niche travel quietly grew legs. Calm seekers opted for “calmcations” in Rishikesh, Coorg and Alleppey. Work-from-anywhere travellers decamped to Goa, Pondicherry and Darjeeling. Digital detox fans chose Spiti, Ladakh and the Andamans, while adventure lovers made a beeline for Bir Billing, Lakshadweep and Auli.
Then came the chaos. Some travellers planned almost a year ahead, booking stays 361 days in advance in Chikkamagaluru and 350 days ahead in Ribandar, Goa. Others lived on adrenaline, with 38 lakh flight bookings made within 48 hours of departure. Around three lakh people booked flights between 3 am and 4 am, enough to fill 353 Airbus A380s.
Extremes defined spending too. The cheapest flight cost Rs 0. The most affordable hotel night came in at Rs 48. At the other end of the scale, travellers shelled out Rs 2.4 lakh for a Delhi–Guwahati flight, Rs 4.43 lakh for Paris–Mumbai and Rs 4.41 lakh for a Maldives hotel stay. One flier even paid Rs 65,000 in excess baggage on a Ghaziabad–Bengaluru trip.
Put together, 2025 was a year of personality-led travel. Indians were impulsive yet deliberate, frugal yet indulgent, glued to their phones but hungry for experiences. If this was the warm-up, 2026 promises to be louder, faster and even more crowded at that sunset spot.
Brands
Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board
Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.
Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.
“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.
The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.
Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.
The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.
Brands
Brnd.me enters Europe as haircare brands power global expansion
Bengaluru: Brnd.me, the global consumer brands company formerly known as Mensa Brands, has entered the European market following strong momentum across the Middle East, the United States and Canada.
The company has launched across the UK, Germany, France and Spain, with plans to expand into Italy, the Netherlands and Poland over the next year. The push is being led by its haircare and aromatherapy brands, Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure, marking Brnd.me’s first structured expansion into Europe.
The European beauty market represents a total addressable opportunity of over $4 billion across haircare and aromatherapy, supported by high digital adoption and demand for accessible, performance-led products.
Brnd.me’s hair care and aromatherapy business currently operates at an annual run rate of around $6 million, with Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure delivering roughly 10 per cent month-on-month growth, driven by expansion and rising repeat demand.
To support regional growth, the company has appointed a general manager based in Germany and is evaluating investments in warehousing and local team expansion.
Early traction has been strong. Within weeks of launch, Botanic Hearth’s rosemary hair oil ranked among the top five hair oils in Germany, signalling strong consumer pull in a competitive market.
Brnd.me founder and chief executive officer Ananth Narayanan, said Europe represents the next phase of the company’s international strategy. He added that the European business is expected to scale to a $10 million annual run rate by the end of 2026, with long-term ambitions to reach $60 million over the next six years.
The company’s Europe strategy centres on digital-first distribution, repeat demand and TikTok-led discovery, alongside direct-to-consumer expansion to strengthen brand equity and margins.
The move also aligns with growing EU–India trade engagement, supporting long-term sourcing and cross-border supply chains.
Brands
TechnoSport taps quick commerce with launch on Slikk’s 60-minute platform
NATIONAL: TechnoSport has launched on Slikk, the ultra-fast fashion app offering 60-minute delivery, as the activewear brand accelerates its push into quick commerce to capture Gen Z and young millennial shoppers.
The debut brings more than 150 high-performance styles to Slikk’s platform, with an average selling price of Rs 450, expanding TechnoSport’s reach across over 80 pin codes.
The partnership follows strong momentum for TechnoSport across Q-commerce channels, where the brand has recorded around 60 per cent volume growth over the past six months. The company expects quick commerce to contribute nearly 20 per cent of its revenue in the coming years as hyperlocal delivery gains scale.
Slikk, which recently raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed, has rapidly gained popularity among youth consumers seeking speed, trend relevance and impulse-led shopping experiences.
Activewear remains one of Slikk’s fastest-growing categories, driven by shoppers increasingly treating fitness-led fashion as an everyday essential. The platform has reported a 30-fold year-on-year increase in items sold, reflecting rising demand for performance wear that blends comfort with style.
TechnoSport chief executive officer Puspen Maity, said the collaboration would help the brand engage more closely with young consumers whose fashion choices are shaped by instant needs and lifestyle aspirations. He added that rapid delivery bridges the gap between intent and purchase, allowing shoppers to access activewear exactly when they want it.
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