Tourism has certainly been flying high. This is evident from the bookings that Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) for their flights offered by them which has seen tremendous jump from passengers who are making use of their Air Packages for vacations. The Air Packages offered by IRCTC for April has skyrocketed by 18 times for 2022-23.
According to data provided by IRCTC for western region, the number of passengers booking air travel using IRCTC for holidays has gone up from 12 passengers in 2021-22 to 218 passengers in this financial year. The air tour packages are somewhat newer than the original domestic rail tour packages offered by this tourism and catering wing of Indian Railways.
“We have come out with 13 different air tour packages and already in April we have received bookings from 218 passengers,” an official from IRCTC said. There are nearly 90-95 different domestic and international air tour packages that IRCTC offers, across the country. Of these around 13 or so originates from Mumbai.
In 2019-20, there was only one domestic air tour package that existed in April which ferried 10 passengers. Due to Covid-19 and lockdown, the tours were discontinued in 2020-21. In April 2021-22, they revived it with again one air tour package which was booked by 12 passengers. Last month this year it saw an increase in the number of packages to 13 as well as 218 passengers booking it.
The IRCTC officials said that travelers can choose from various cheap air packages and book flight tickets online. For instance, they stated that Mumbai-Nepal for five nights’ tour is being offered at just over Rs 37000 for two passengers, which is scheduled in mid-June. There are more options for domestic air tour packages from Mumbai that are scheduled to fly to Tirupati, Kashmir, Char Dham of Badrinath/Kedarnath, Gangtok, Darjeeling, Ladakh etc. There are attractive deals available for Group bookings and discounts available for students and senior citizens. One can also mention if they need special assistance for pregnant women or physically challenged.
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