Mumbaiites use four-day break to escape busy city

Travel agents say they have witnessed significant bookings to domestic tourist spots such as Goa and Kerala, and even to metros such as Delhi and Bangalore. Bandra resident Rahul Biswas, for instance, packed his bag for a short trip to New Delhi over the weekend.

For Ankit Nigam, a management trainee with a local radio station, weekends usually entail going out with friends or catching up on sleep.

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But with back-to-back holidays on Thursday and Friday, thanks to Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday respectively, the 24-year-old is making a dash out of the city. “I have never been to Pune. So I decided to travel there for the weekend. I might also catch the IPL match on Sunday,” said the Bandra resident.

Like Nigam, several Mumbaiites are using the 4-day break to escape the city.

Rooms at all Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC)-run resorts were sold out for this long weekend two weeks in advance. “From Konkan to Tadoba, all our properties are almost packed,” said Dilip Shinde, joint managing director, MTDC. He added that getting bookings till the May-end would be difficult, with schools scheduled to shut for summer next week.

Travel agents say they have witnessed significant bookings to domestic tourist spots such as Goa and Kerala, and even to metros such as Delhi and Bangalore. Bandra resident Rahul Biswas, for instance, packed his bag for a short trip to New Delhi over the weekend.

Travel agents, however, added that long weekends earlier this year witnessed better bookings. “Since school exams are still not over, families with children have missed out on the long weekend. Airfares across domestic and nearby international destinations had shot up during a similar long weekend in January,” said Jay Bhatia, western region chairman of the Travel Agents Association of India.