Hassle-free stairway to heaven and beyond

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With growing popularity of tour operators, tourists no longer have to make last minute bookings or have to worry about hotel accommodation or food.

There’s an increase in demand for tour operators who provide end-to-end solutions right from picking one from home to booking flight tickets, arranging guides and dropping back at home.

Mr Ragothaman and his family visited France last year, thanks to one of the leading tour operators. “I was clueless about foreign tours. For us, vacation means spending a few days in Ooty or Kodaikkanal.

But only last year we decided to explore new places and contacted a leading operator. Though cost ran into several lakhs of rupees, we enjoyed a lot without any hassles as the tour operator took in charge of everything,” said Mr Ragothaman.

Chennaiites have started exploring European and Far East countries. T.N. Ganesh, branch manager of Yatra.com, one of the leading online travel companies says, “Customers approach tour operators like us because we are capable of getting UK visas that involve lot of paperwork.

Almost 50 per cent of our Chennai customers prefer Far East countries and others explore European countries.”

He adds that tour operators facilitate tourists by providing information, pricing, availability and booking facility for both domestic and international travel. “The package we offer depends upon the hotel stay and food that customers prefer,” adds Ganesh.

While travel agents are meant only for booking tickets, tour operators provide end- to- end facilities. Mr. Ganesh adds that a holiday in Switzerland for six to seven days will cost approximately Rs 90,000 per person.

Vijay Nirmal, senior tour manager, Tours & Travels says, “We facilitate inbound passengers who visit India during summer time.

Our customers are mostly NRIs. We operate at least 10 people daily who come to Chennai say from South Africa or Switzerland and from here they visit Tirupathi, Bengaluru, Mysore, Cochin, Kerala, Goa and other places,” he said.

For inbound passengers, season time is between November and January. “The transport facilities also include a guide who helps tourists and makes their travel memorable,” informs Mr Nirmal.

Why tour operators? “Tourists are too busy to look after travel arrangements and we, tour operators, help them,” added Mr Nirmal.