BENGALURU: Tired of the typical package tours offered by the tourism department? Well now you can mix things up a bit and the department will be happy to organise an itinerary for you. Offering customised package tours as a new concept, the department is now asking tourists to choose the place they want to visit, or the type of holiday they are looking for. After this step, an ideal itinerary will be created for them, which can be modified if required.
So far, the package tours on offer had a single focus with tours like Mysuru sightseeing, religious tours, two day trip to waterfalls and others. However, the department quickly realised that these packages were not seeing a good response. The new plan however, has led to some strange, if not outright confusing requests. Enquiries for visiting waterfalls combined with heritage sights, urban tours with wildlife safaris and religious tours with coastal getaways are being asked for, and the department still delivers.
“The demands are extreme and the challenge is huge yet exciting. This shows the choices of people and it will help us design different packages for the times ahead. We are also asking people to script their holidays and adventures for others to follow,” a tourism department official said.
Started just 10 days back, around 10 people have already utilised the service, according to Kumar Pushkar, Managing Director of the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC). “The size of the group does not matter for creating these itineraries. It could be a couple, a family of four or even a group of fifty. Customised packages can be created for any one,” he said.
Tourists have also found the customised package deal useful. “So far, there was a catch for each package. For example, the women exclusive tour needed at least 20 women and the option was enabled only for the Mysuru trip. Now with just 6-8 women we can make a plan,” said Karuna M, an avid traveller. The KSTDC has also started a Mayura Trail, where tourists can visit destinations across the state and hop from one KSTDC hotel to the other.