10 December,2009 08:51 AM IST | | Shree Lahiri
For Puneites, December is normally the holiday month. But this year round, it looks like the holidaying crowd has taken an off, literally.
Up until last year, foreign destinations were hot preferences for Puneites, especially the young professionals. But now, travel agencies reveal a downward trend in the bookings.
Agents feel that people are taking it easy, attributing it to the numerous problems that the aam admi has been hit by like cost of living, price rise and of course, swine flu.
Yogendra Kaushik, manager of Travel Home Tours and Travels at Koregaon Park, said, "I don't know why but the bookings have slowed down, especially in the last 10 days. This is high-season time, but the pace is very poor."
Kaushik's view is shared by Sachin Khandelwal, proprietor of Satyam Tours and Travels, which is at Sassoon Road. He said, "Due to swine flu, the bookings have come down by 30 per cent for domestic and 70 per cent for international destinations respectively."
It's not just bookings, but walk-ins are also less. Vijay Yadhav, proprietor of Victor Travels at Hadapsar, said, "Bookings are very down now. Only some corporate bookings are happening."
Heartbroken
And how are the holiday-makers looking at this? Asma Rahman, a media professional, was all set to take off to Bangkok but has just cancelled the holiday.
She said, "I had planned to go with four friends, but unfortunately, three of them dropped out, and that put an end to our holiday."
While planning his honeymoon Sanjeev Biswal, an IT professional, originally wanted to check out a foreign destination, but has now settled for Nainital and is happy as it's cheaper and less crowded than Simla or Kulu-Manali.
