The desire of spending honeymoon in South East Asian tourist destinations is on the rise among the people in Chhattisgarh who would be tying the knot soon.
With hardly a month left for the beginning of the wedding bells, travel agents are receiving a huge number of calls on booking ‘Honeymoon Packages’ for various countries in the region.
“Interestingly, the response is more due to the ‘affordable packages’ . Middle-class couples prefer honeymoon packages for Mauritius, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Macau and Thailand. The booking is gradually picking up,” said Kirti Vyas, the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) Managing Committee member said, adding the bookings are particularly for winter season from November month.
Asked about the budget tour packages, he said it is within Rs 50,000-Rs 2 lakh per head. The list of such people not only covers Raipur but also Bilaspur and Raigarh districts.
Meanwhile, a local agent Manoj Rathore owning a travel company said couples are booking atleast three to four nights package either for Malaysia, Thailand or Mauritius as the lowest rate for each person begins from Rs 45,000.
“Besides, Raipur, we are getting calls from Bhilai. It is benefiting our business,” he added.
Bharat Soni, a newly married resident of Railway Colony planning to visit Malaysia with his spouse in the winter season said, “Exploring the South East Asian countries suits my pocket.”
However, official sources maintained despite the craze for such countries particularly for honeymoon purpose, State’s tourism sector is undergoing a shortfall of 15 to 20 percent in the in-bound foreign tourist traffic due to the increase in US dollar rates in comparison to Indian rupees.
People from wealthy segments are choosing European tourist destinations for their honeymoon and also New Zealand.
Stating the reason behind the choice, Vyas said, “Countries like New Zealand are popular for adventure sports. Both young husband and wife enjoy bungee jumping and skiing activities during honeymoon. They book such tours for a minimum period of 15 days. It costs around Rs 2 lakh per head.”
Notably last month, the Centre had granted 'in-principle' approval for including Chhattisgarh in the ‘Tribal Tourism Circuit’ under its ‘Swadesh Darshan’ package.
The 'in-principle' approval was granted in a high-level meeting of officials which was attended by Chhattisgarh Tourism Minister Dayaldas Baghel and Union Minister of State for Tourism ( Independent Charge) Dr Mahesh Sharma in New Delhi.
Notably, the Union Ministry of Tourism launched the following two new schemes pursuant to the Budget 2014-15 announcements--Swadesh Darshan for Integrated Development of Tourist Circuits around Specific Themes and National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) to beautify and improve the amenities and infrastructure at pilgrimage centres of all faiths.
Funds have been sanctioned to States/UTs for developing tourism destinations and circuits during 2014-15, which includes projects relating to Product/Infrastructure Development for Destinations and Circuits (PIDDC), Human Resource Development (HRD), Fairs and Festivals and Rural Tourism.
The Union Ministry of Tourism provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) to State Governments/Union Territory Administrations for various tourism projects subject to availability of funds, inter-se priority, liquidation of pending utilization certificates against the funds released earlier and adherence to the relevant scheme guidelines.
Twelve theme based circuits i.e. North East Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Desert Circuit, Tribal Circuit, Eco Circuit, Wildlife Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit and Ramayana Circuit have been identified for development under ‘Swadesh Darshan’.
Under PRASAD, initially twelve cities have been identified namely Ajmer, Amritsar, Amravati, Dwarka, Gaya, Kedarnath, Kamakhaya, Kanchipuram, Mathura, Puri, Varanasi and Velankanni.
The revised budget allocation for these schemes in the financial year 2014-15 were Rs 20 crore and Rs.15.60 crore respectively. In the current financial year, the budget provision for these schemes is Rs 600 crore for Swadesh Darshan and Rs 100 crore for PRASAD. These are Central Sector Schemes, hence State/Union Territory-wise allocations have not been made.
Chhattisgarh is among only two other states which had sent a proposal to the Union Ministry of Tourism for its theme-based ‘Swadesh Darshan’ scheme for development of eco-tourism infrastructure in the State.
The proposal by Chhattisgarh is for ‘Integrated Development of Eco Tourism’ circuit in Rajmergarh–Kabir Chabutra-Achanakmar Tiger Reserve- Kurdar-Sirpur-Kodar Dam-Gangrel Dam-Kanger Valley National Park, officials informed.
The Telangana State had sent proposal for ‘ Integrated Development of Eco Tourism circuit’ in Mahaboobnagar District and Kerala has sent proposal for ‘Integrated Development of Eco Tourism’ circuit in Gavi – Pathanamthitta Promotion, development of tourism and its infrastructure including promotion of eco-tourism/heritage tourism is primarily the responsibility of the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations, officials stated.
Notably, in 2014-15, the Chhattisgarh Tourism Board (CTB) had drawn up ambitious plans to develop India’s biggest 'Eco-tourism hub' in the State, an official press release issued last year had stated.
The press release had stated that CTB had already received Rs 113.5 crores project prioritization go ahead from the Union Ministry of Tourism to take its plans forward.
The CTB, under the aegis of the Chhattisgarh Government had created a blue-print of future tourism plans that will help establish Chhattisgarh as India’s biggest 'Eco-Tourism hub, it had stated.'