Fall in rupee makes tricity travellers trim down foreign holiday plans - Hindustan Times
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Fall in rupee makes tricity travellers trim down foreign holiday plans

Hindustan Times | By, Chandigarh
Sep 10, 2013 09:54 AM IST

Arvinderjit Singh, a resident of Sector 70 in SAS Nagar had promised his son a trip to Disneyland in USA during the Diwali break. It was a fortnight-long trip with a visit to nearby states of USA. This was before the dramatic fall in rupee prices against the US dollar.

Arvinderjit Singh, a resident of Sector 70 in SAS Nagar had promised his son a trip to Disneyland in USA during the Diwali break. It was a fortnight-long trip with a visit to nearby states of USA. This was before the dramatic fall in rupee prices against the US dollar. Now the family has cut short the visit to a five-day affair that just includes a trip to Disneyland.

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With the rise in costs of foreign travels owing to a deprecating rupee, a vacation abroad will burn a hole in your pocket but it has failed to deter the travel plans of "chronic" travellers of the tricity who instead of cancelling their plans are opting for budget trips to international destinations.



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The ones, who have been hit the hardest are travellers especially students who are either rethinking their travel plans or cancelling them altogether and instead opting for Indian destinations.

With the fall in Rupee prices, vacations to international destinations will affect the business of travel companies as the festive season has kicked off and peak travel season is just around the corner. Travel operators usually rake in 40% to 45% of their annual business in the October to January period thanks to a slew of festivals.

As per a survey conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), with the foreign trips becoming quite costly for Indian tourists, many people are cutting short their foreign trips, or opting for domestic holidays.

According to the survey, "The foreign tourist outflow registered a significant decline to the extent of 15-20% due to the falling rupee. In the wake of the record rupee depreciation, Indian tourists are not just cutting down on the duration of the vacation, but also opting for holidays within the country."
Kapil Malhotra of Ekido Holiday Tour, Sector 8, Chandigarh, said, "Tricity has a large chunk of people who we term as 'chronic' travellers, this is a segment which opts for vacations to their desired destination come what may. These days customer opt for customised deals and bookings are made much in advance thus depreciating rupee does not affect the plans but the duration may get reduced."

Vaneet Sharma, who runs Sheetal Travels from Sector 17, said, "With the depreciating rupee there is a straight increase of 15-20% in the packages being offered. So booking is done in advance and there have been no cancellations. Yes, vacation plans have been put off by many people, which is evident from the decreasing number of inquiries."

Sharma added, "Families are opting for travel but are downsizing in terms of stay and the hotels they stay in. From a stay of few weeks to just 6-7 days and instead of staying in 4 star hotels people are opting to stay in 3 star hotels or budget inns or bed and breakfast places to make the trip economical."

Karan Anand of Cox and Kings Limited, said, "A few travellers may have downsized their vacation. Instead of taking a 10 day holiday to a European destination, they may go in for seven days. We have not witnessed any cancellations."

Anand added, "To offset the devaluation of the rupee, we have come up with packages that combine the airfare and the stay costs mainly to cushion travellers. These packages have fares that have been frozen much in advance to protect travellers against unprecedented increases."

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