The Hindu : Kerala News : Charter tours enthuse tourists

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Friday, Apr 25, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala

Charter tours enthuse tourists

Photo: S. Gopakumar

SOAKING IN THE QUIET: A foreign tourist has the Light House beach at Kovalam all to herself. With the last chartered flight departing to Gatwick, the peak tourist season has come to an end. —

The response to charter tour operations from the United Kingdom, Sweden and Russia during the peak tourist season was “overwhelming”, with the operators terming it as the “best in the last seven years”.

Although Kerala is touted as a 365-day destination, arrival of the first chartered flight from the U.K. heralds the four-month peak season commencing in November. The good occupancy in hotels and the unusual crowd on the famed beaches of Kovalam and Varkala were attributed to the chartered tourists.

With the last chartered flight from the international airport here to Gatwick departing earlier this week, the beaches in Kovalam seem to be deserted all of a sudden.

The U.K.-based First Choice and Thomas Cook are the main charter tour operators. The flights had a load of over 95 per cent. As many as 6,100 tourists arrived in the weekly flights operated by Thomas Cook from Gatwick to the Thiruvananthapuram international airport between November 3 and April 19.

In the First Choice flights operated every fortnight between November 2 and April 18, 3,200 tourists arrived from the U.K., with upmarket tourists in the 50-plus age group forming the majority.

Overwhelming

“The response to the tour was overwhelming and the fears of epidemics did not affect the operations. The profile of the chartered tourist arriving in the State had gone up a step,” according to senior manager, Leisure Travel (Inbound) Thomas Cook, M. Sadiq Farook.

The guests stayed at the five star deluxe Leela Kovalam to Golden Sands, a guesthouse-like accommodation, near the Light House beach. Tour operators said the arrival of a large number of families from the U.K was a new trend.

“The sale of the local tours to the tourists was the highest in the last seven years,” Mr. Farook said.

Over 40 per cent of the tourists who came in the First Choice flights went for local tours and round trips during their 14-day stay here, an official of the local handling agent for the charter operator said.

Chartered flight operations from Sweden also resumed to the State capital after a gap of almost 11 years. The upmarket Swedish tourists were brought by ‘Sol Resor’. Another chartered flight with Russian tourists arrived in January for a 10-day stay here.

The lack of quality rooms is a major hindrance in expanding the charter tour operations and frequency of flights. “We wanted to operate weekly flights from Gatwick, but shortage of quality rooms was a hurdle,” a tour operator said.

S. Anil Radhakrishnan

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