According to the officials, they were hopeful of good sales till the end of Tihar. Biswash Bajarcharya of NextYatra said, “People are in festive mood till Tihar and we have received remarkable booking till that period.” [break]He further said the sale was up by 40 percent. NextYatra had launched packages to Dubai, Bangkok and different Chinese cities.
The agencies said that besides the fixed packages many customers also traveled under tailored packages. “Along with the rise in travel culture, the awareness of the customers has also increased as they are more particular about their requirements than before,” said he.
Emery Travels which has introduced budget packages has also reported a remarkable growth. “We are yet to compare the sales but there is no doubt the sales of package was remarkably higher this season,” said Pramod Kumar Shrestha of Emery Travels.
Likewise, Narad Luitel of Success Travels who had launched both domestic as well as outbound packages observed the growth of about 50 percent in the sales. He said that although the enquiries about the outbound packages were good, the sales of domestic packages was better.
According to the tour operators, there was not much change in the destinations compared to last year. Although the operators had introduced packages to new destination, the attraction on packages to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore was more in the outbound. Likewise, the attraction in the packages of Sauraha, Pokhara, Bandipur and short trek packages was higher.
Shrestha of Emery Travels said that although the sales of packages was better than previous years, the number of people traveling on their own was higher. “Many people have started traveling under packages these days but still majority of the travelers are traveling by themselves in the lack of proper promotion of the packages.
Bijaya Pradhan of Dream Nepal said that as the festive season coincided with peak tourist season, many travel agents are also reluctant about focusing on domestic tourist. “It´s hard for us to manage transport and hotels during Dashain as they are booked in advance,” Pradhan said the tendency of last minute booking was creating problems in domestic tourism.
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