To revive the tourism industry post COVID-19, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has announced new air and train packages starting from Kerala.
Some of the exciting domestic flight packages as well as train coach tour cover important historic places and pilgrimage centres commencing from Kochi mid-September, October and November. Incidentally, all tickets for the Ladakh package covering Leh, Nubra and Pangong from Kochi on September 24 was sold out on Thursday itself, an official said.
The Jammu and Kashmir tour packages have been getting huge response in recent times. The Ladakh package was priced at ₹36,800 per passenger, he said.
Air package
The domestic air package includes return air tickets, hotel stay, local transportation, breakfast and dinner while on tour and services of IRCTC tour manager.
The Tirupati Balaji darshan by train, with Padmavati and Kalahasti temples commences from Thiruvananthapuram on September 24. The package, including sleeper-class train tickets, AC hotel accommodation, food during hotel stay, and Seeghra darshan tickets for Tirupati darshan, is offered at₹6,685 per person.
R. Ratheesh Chandran, Joint General Manager-Tourism, IRCTC, says that Rishikesh- Haridwar-Dehradun-Mussoorie package from October 6 to 11 was priced at ₹30,715 per passenger. The New Delhi-Jaipur-Agra package named Golden Triangle package would be conducted between October 23 and 28. This package is offered at ₹23,945 per passenger.
Another is Odisha tour covering Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, the 13th century Sun Temple in Konark and Bhubaneswar beginning November 12. The package is priced at ₹26,940 per passenger.
Likewise, a trip connecting important pilgrim and historical places in Gujarat covering Akshardham temple at Ahmedabad, Jyotirlinga temple in Somnath, Ambe Mata Temple Junagarh, Kirti; Sudama Porbandar, Dwarkadish Temple, Nageshwar Temple, Dwarka Temple, Rukmini Mata Temple at Dwarka, Bala Hanuman Temple at Jamnagar, and Chhotila Chamunda Mata Mandir at Rajkot would start from November 20. The package starts from ₹31,350 per person.
There is a package connecting Vishwanath Temple, Annapurna Temple, Vishalakshi Temple, Sarnath the Buddhist temple, Triveni Sangamam in Allahabad and Ayodhya in December. The tariff for the package is ₹28,755.
The tickets can be booked via IRCTC offices or online. For details, contact Ernakulam – 8287932082/8287932117, Thiruvananthapuram — 8287932095, email: tourismkerala@irctc.com, Kozhikode — 8287932098, Palakkad and Coimbatore — 9003140655/8287931965.
