40,000 registrations in 2 hours as advance safari booking opens in Ranthambore

Advance safari bookings for the upcoming tourism season at Ranthambore Tiger Reserve witnessed an overwhelming response from domestic and foreign tourists, with nearly 40,000 registrations within two hours of its opening, officials said on Sunday.

According to the Ranthambore administration, the booking window for safaris scheduled between October 1 and December 31 this year opened at 12 noon on August 1. Within two hours, around 40,000 tourists registered. Of this, around 14,000 were foreign visitors.

Officials said a large number of users accessed the official portal simultaneously, leading to a sharp surge in traffic. However, the portal — along with verification, booking processes and live reporting systems — functioned smoothly even during peak hours.

According to the Deputy Conservator of Forests, Ranthambore, Manas Singh, a key feature of the new system was that seats remained available across various safari options even two hours after the bookings opened. “Seats were still available for several dates, including peak periods such as Diwali and Christmas holidays. Real-time seat availability on the portal enabled tourists to choose dates and safari options conveniently, making the process more transparent and user-friendly,” he said.

Despite heavy digital traffic, multiple cyber-attack attempts and unauthorised activities were detected and successfully blocked by the system, he said.

“During the booking process, around 20 lakh suspicious cyber-attack attempts, over 150 suspicious IP addresses and more than two crore fake requests were blocked. Despite this, the portal functioned normally throughout,” Singh said.

For the first time, foreign tourists were allowed to directly book safaris from their respective countries through the official portal, he said, adding that the move showed encouraging results on the very first day.

Foreign tourists accounted for nearly 40 per cent of the total bookings, with around 200 of them logging in independently to complete bookings. Online bookings were recorded from countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Netherlands.

The Ranthambore administration said the new digital system aims to make the booking process more transparent, simple and equitable for all tourists. It expressed hope that the initiative would provide a smoother, safer and more efficient booking experience during the upcoming tourism season.