TIRUCHY: Riding on the positive response to the resumption of scheduled international flight operations last month, travel operators in the city are hopeful of a busy summer holiday season and it as helping them to recover from the pandemic-induced losses.
"At present, many are booking tickets for Malaysia, Thailand and Dubai to spend their holidays. Those flying to Thailand are going through Chennai as we don't have direct flights from Tiruchy. The other sectors like Singapore and other Middle East locations are not getting bookings like Malaysia. But this trend would change by May and those sectors would also get more bookings. We are expecting so, especially to Middle East countries, from the first week of May as many would come down for Eid holidays," said G Kalidasan, a travel agent.
Travel agents have also started coming up with holiday tour packages, pointing to how there are now bookings for domestic locations as well.
"Many have made reservations for Varanasi, Darjeeling, Kashmir, and Ladakh. At present, they are spending about Rs 40,000 for visiting these domestic destinations. We are expecting the ticket rates to increase in the coming days. So, domestic bookings are also picking up. For instance, during the Chithirai festival, most of the flights between Madurai and Chennai did not even have vacant seats. Whenever there were some ticket cancellations, those seats were sold at about Rs 20,000. We are expecting this trend to continue. We hope that many international and domestic tourists would visit Tiruchy this holiday season," said S Palaniappan, a tour operator.
Concerns over the rise in Covid-19 cases, however, are also in the air. "At present, we are getting so many bookings in the domestic and international sectors. But we are concerned over reports about the spike in Covid cases in Delhi.
The rise in cases in our national capital may cause some concerns among international tourists. We hope the authorities would take steps to avoid further spread of the virus in Delhi and states. Otherwise, Covid may spoil our expectations in the last minute," said N Ramesh, a travel agent.