Sourish Chatterjee and his wife have deferred their Europe trip till next year’s Durga Puja. Instead, the South Kolkata-based couple picked up a 7-day Kashmir package next month at an estimated cost of Rs 30,000.

Among the top domestic travellers in the country, the footloose Bengalis prefer to travel during the Puja holidays.

While the return of peace has made Kashmir a top draw to in this year’s Puja rush, traditional favourites such as Goa and Andaman are not much behind, says C M Mukherjee of Weekend Trips.

Economic slowdown coupled with rising airfares and depreciating currency has resulted in a decline in outbound travel this year.

According to Rakesh Lamba, former President, Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India, the impact is also felt in domestic travelling as middle and upper middle class travellers are looking to trim costs and are settling for cheaper destinations.

The impact, tour operators suggest, is visible in the decline in bookings for Kerala and Himachal Pradesh. Both the destinations were top draws last year.

“Kerala and Himachal Pradesh saw 10 per cent and 50 per cent dip in bookings respectively this year even while the traffic to Kashmir is expected to jump 200 per cent this festival season,” Pavan Jaju, director of Carewell Travels, said.

Tourist flow to the North-East may fall significantly in the aftermath of riots in Assam, industry insiders said. To add to the worry, recent landslide at Lachung has impacted the flow to an otherwise tourist-friendly Sikkim.

“Our business is likely to be impacted this year during the October-November season. So far, the bookings and queries hint at a subdued business this season, compared with April-May-June period,” Kaushik Ghosh, director of Zest India Travels, said. Zest is a prominent operator in NE region.

shobha.roy@thehindu.co.in

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