Global crisis takes steam out of country's heritage trains, including state's Deccan Odyssey
Global crisis takes steam out of country's heritage trains, including state's Deccan Odyssey
The economic slowdown has forced the steam out of luxury trains in India. While many of them are cooling their wheels at railway yards, others have faced a steep slump in business. Among the affected trains is the Deccan
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from chuk chuk to ruk ruk: There are fewer tourists travelling on the Deccan Odyssey. file pic |
Odyssey, which covers Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad and Ajanta and Goa.
Also sitting idle are the Heritage on Wheels and Royal Rajasthan on Wheels. "At times, there was more staff than passengers on board," said a Rajasthan Tourism Development official, explaining why they decided to suspend operations of the two trains.
Tour operators said a low turnout was inevitable, as they were mainly dependent on tourists from the US and Europe, which have been hit hard by the financial crisis.
"There has been a considerable decline in the number of foreign tourists coming to India. So, there was bound to be fewer bookings for luxury trains," said Subhash Goel, chairperson of Stic Travel group. "The tariff for these trains is also steep. A tariff cut or discounts could've attracted more foreigners and well-heeled Indians," said Goel.
An Indian Railway official said the only luxury train that has been able to chug along is the Palace on Wheels, which still manages an 80 per cent occupancy.
4,87,000 The number of foreign tourists who came to India in January this year
1,04,000
The drop in the number of foreign tourists in January when compared to the same month last year
