Kerala, a hotspot on Gujarat’s travel agenda

A two-day innovative and informative tourism fair organised by Divya Bhaskar in association with the Gujarat Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) began on Saturday. The event, being held at the Golden Hall at Rajpath Club on the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway, drew a significant number of visitors despite intermittent rain throughout the day.

“The concept and response to the fair were good. Many people enquired about travel destinations in Gujarat. Such fairs drastically reduce the time and energy of travellers as all the information and services required, including bookings, are available on a single platform,” an official of GTDC explained to the participants and visitors at the fair.

“We have been receiving a lot of enquiries and are getting good mileage from this event. The concept is a success. The fair is a one-stop solution with helpful inputs for visitors as it provides all information such as new travel destinations and innovative travel packages — all under one roof,” said Keyur Kotak of Aatithya Holidays.

According to the stakeholders of the tourism fair, the majority of enquiries from the visitors were for Kerala. “Kerala seems to be the dream travel destination of Gujaratis. It offers thrilling vacation opportunities, with a variety of beautiful places such as seashores jungle safaris, hill stations etc,” Kotak said. In addition to Kerala, there were enquiries for tour packages for hills stations in north India including Simla and Kulu Manali.

“People now prefer to travel by air because of the reduced fares. Besides, air journeys save a significant portion of travel time. Among the international destinations, a majority of Gujaratis prefer Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia,” said Vivek Dudakiya of Shakti Travels.