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Plan your vacation with IITM

Staff Reporter

25th edition of travel fair is a treat on several counts

TOUR PLANNING: Visitors at the stalls at the travel and tourism expo in the city on Friday. PHOTO: V. GANESAN

CHENNAI: In a dilemma where to travel for your vacation? The travel and tourism exhibition, inaugurated at the Rani Meyammai and Rajah Muthiah halls on Friday, is a good place to zero in on the vacation that you've always dreamed about.

The 25th edition of the India International Travel Mart (IITM) is a treat on several counts: there are over 120 stalls with foreign and local participants there are of course special promotions on most packages; there's even an Indian Railway stall for spot booking.

Anuraj Gupta, one of the directors of IITM, said that for the first time a tourism operator from Greece was participating in a tourism exhibition in the city.

"The disposable income of even middle-income families has grown drastically in recent years." So vacationing in Greece or other overseas destinations is definitely on.

Cricket lovers looking to vacation next month in Sri Lanka can check out some of the special offers put up by the Sri Lankan tourism operators, in the context of the tri-nation cricket tournament in the island nation.

World Travel Centre Colombo (Private) Limited is offering a 4-days-3-nights package at Rs.3,950 per person.

This does not include the airfare and the match tickets. But the exhibition is not entirely about flying out of the country. Even local destinations have started vying for a large piece of the tourism pie.

If the stall put up by Karnataka Tourism Board is any indication, one should not be surprised at a number of visitors choosing Mercara over everything else.

The organisers have been able to get tourism development boards of 12 States to participate. The stalls put up by Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh offer interesting insights into their lesser-known destinations.

There are also special offers on bulk bookings. The IITM exhibition is on till Sunday.

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