The Puja vacation is close at hand. This is just the time to plan your vacations, travels and visits to other places and neighboring states. In the excitement of travel plans we headed towards Netaji Indoor Stadium where the Travel and Tourism Fair of Kolkata was being inaugurated. The fair ran from 7th − 9th July only, and this was the best opportunity to decide where to go.
Once you enter the stadium you are overwhelmed with 400 sellers from 28 states and 13 countries. We were welcomed with a lot of warmth and patience from those attending each stall and all our queries was answered patiently. Each of the names of states evoked images to my mind and we were spoilt for choice. The offers were reasonable and tour packages were customized according to the pocket. This was one place and time to decide where we wished to head during the Puja vacation. TTF Kolkata has always maintained a steady growth, signaling positive sentiments in the travel trade, despite the headwinds due to demonetization and uncertainties of GST.
Hopping from one pavilion to the other I managed to visit Nepal, West Bengal, Puducherry, Odisha, Andaman & Nicobar, Rajasthan, Gujrat and Kerala. I also managed to visit the foreign country pavilions. Sri Lanka Tourism was participating in TTF for the first time this year and had a well-spaced out decorative pavilion. The other pavilions were Bangladesh, China, Macao, Nepal and Thailand. In addition there was Bhutan, Canada, Japan, Myanmar, UAE and USA. While traveling in my mind from one place to the other totally engrossed by all the pavilions around me I stayed a little longer at the Naturally Nepal, Ladakh and Goa stall. Hotel Jungle Living at the Chail Shimla Hills had attractive offers to enjoy nature and the snow clad mountains and valleys. This eco-tourism hotel situated at an altitude of 2,400 meters in the Himalayas looked like a distinct possibility for my next vacation.
Another stall that took up some time to explore was experience Bengal homestays (experiencebengalhomestays.com), which had organized travel to Sittong, tea tourism, Kalimpong, Lingsey, the mystic splendor of Nepal’s trekking packages to Chintaphu, Sandakphu and many more. There were customized travel plans to make and depending on the number of days and travel time all details could be discussed and decisions to be taken. With so many choices to make and so many more pavilions to visit we took a break for tea and very delicious snack at the stall keeping all the flyers and information safely in our bags so that we could later on sit back and decide on the place we could visit. It would be difficult to choose but then Puja vacations neared, we would have to make a quick decision to make sure we had our bookings before setting off. Thanks to TTF we were able to get all the relevant information at a single place.
At the inauguration Mr. Sanjiv Agarwal, Chairman and CEO of the organizers, Fairfest Media Ltd rightly commented that “TTF Kolkata is India’s oldest and one of the busiest travel trade shows in the country. With the increasing importance of Outbound and Inbound potential in the East and South-East Asia, it serves as a strategically important gateway for the industry. That is the reason it is a full-house show every year since the last 27 years – a legacy that we are proud of.”
It was now time to take stock of all our travel options and plan our vacations based on our budgets. Where to travel is yet to be decided, but the possibilities are endless. If you have the travel bug in you then this is the right time to plan your travel to one of the many destinations in Incredible India!