Nouveau tourists of Incredible India, which has been upset by the economic slowdown and

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other geo-political disturbances, are turning back to traditional forms of spiritual and family tourism in the light of a slump in the emerging avenues of travel in the country. According to a survey done by Travel and Tourism Fair (TTF), adventure or nature or any other theme based tourism is yet again at the fringes.

“It is a niche fraction in the overall tour industry. Family oriented leisure or religious tourism is what dominates the scene,” said TTF chairman and Fairfest CEO Sanjiv Agarwal. This, according to him, is a fallout of the slump in the tourism industry. The positive effect is that tariffs have fallen by as much as 25-50% in travel and accommodation. “So, enjoy the leisure and stick to the conventional is the fad now,” Agarwal said.

TTF held a day long expo on travel and tourism at Chennai on Friday, initiating its season of expos running up to the summer vacation. It will hold similar fairs at Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi till end of February.

“80% of the travelers from these cities travel during the summer vacation, and 20% during winter. That’s why we hold the fairs at this time of the year so they can plan their vacation,” Agarwal said. As tourists in Kolkata and Gujarat travel during the durga puja and diwali vacations respectively, the fairs are held in July and September in those places.

According to the company’s survey, visitors to their fairs, usually, come with the aim of making bookings and are not casual onlookers. The survey also revealed that the average number of domestic tours taken by a family is 2 per annum, for a duration of 1.5 weeks, at an average budget of Rs.16900.

Agarwal said, “Tirupathi is still the destination receiving the maximum number of visitors per year in India. But, there is adventure there in the form of a trek to the shrine.” In the fair, Kerala, primarily a leisure destination occupied 50% of the stalls. There were 125 participants in all, out of which 90% were return participants from last year. Gujarat tourism and China tourism were the new entrants at the fair.