When Bengalureans go on outstation holidays, devotion wins hands down, at least for one-day tours.
Going by the trips organised by the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC), more Bengalureans are opting for one-day tours, particularly for the Tirupati package.
The corporation’s Tirupati tour covers Bengaluru, Mysuru, Ooty, and Tirupati, including different variants in the same city.
“The Tirupati one-day trip is the most popular. Almost every day, there are a minimum of two buses to Tirupati, and during the weekends, the number goes up to four. The package, which costs ₹1,700 per person, includes pick up from different points at 9 p.m., arrival at 3.30 a.m., a room to freshen up, and visits to the temple, which end around noon. They are then taken for lunch and then brought back to Bengaluru,” said KSTDC Managing Director Kumar Pushkar.
The popularity of the tours has prompted the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) to increase the number of ‘Sheegra darshana tickets’ to 200 per day from the earlier 100.
The Bengaluru and Mysuru sightseeing tours are not that popular. “They normally run during the weekend. In April and May, they are operational on all days, even going up to two to three buses, maybe. But, they work mostly on weekends,” said Mr. Pushkar.
The Bengaluru tour has different itineraries, but the ‘Bengaluru Sightseeing’ tour, which covers Rajarajeshwari Temple, Bannerghatta Biological Park, National Gallery of Modern Art, and Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, is said to be the most popular.
No trip cancelled
To ensure that fewer trips are cancelled owing to low turnout, the KSTDC has also done away with the minimum number of people required for a tour. Instead of waiting for at least half the bus to fill up, which was the practice earlier, the corporation now goes ahead with a trip even if there are five or six passengers, by arranging smaller 15-seater tempo-travellers.
Alternative Mysuru trip
The corporation is also looking at introducing an alternative to the one-day Mysuru trip from Bengaluru. Realising that the present tour is hectic (the tour starts from Bengaluru at 6 a.m. and returns to the city late at night), the plan now is to include a halt at Mysuru and take visitors to Srirangapatna and back to Mysuru the next day, before returning to Bengaluru.
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Private tour operators, however, had customers opt for different segments. Adi Narayana, who has a travel agency in Seshadripuram, said Tirupati was the undisputed number one in the list of places to see for many Indians. However, he said a lot of Bengalureans opt for tours to north India, and closer home to Tamil Nadu and Kerala, for holidays through his agency.
Usha from a travel agency in Jayanagar, said they barely had clients asking for religious holidays. “Most people look for cooler places such as Ooty, Kodaikanal, Yercaud, Chickmagalur and places like Dandeli and Mysuru for shorter holidays, and to Shimla-Manali for long duration holidays,” she said.
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