Amidst high inflation and weak economy, Mumbaikars have found a novel way to get away from the routine during the six-day holiday period that kicks off on Aug 15. The holidaymakers have choosen government owned resorts over luxury hotels to cut down the costs.

While rooms at private resorts and hotels, which cost more, are still vacant, government-owned resorts have been getting a huge response. Seventy-five per cent of the rooms in government resorts in Konkan are already booked.

Even houses that are made available to tourists under the bread-and-breakfast scheme are nearly 100% booked, said officials.

Jagdish Patil, managing director of Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), said bookings in government resorts at Malshej, Bhandardara, Karla, Mahabaleshwar, Ganapatipule and Harihareshwar are close to full. "We will need to make some expansions to our resorts to accommodate the crowd this season," he said.

"Room expansion work is already on in our resorts at Bhandardara, Ganapatipule, Tadoba, Ramtek and Mithbao. We will take up work at other destinations soon," said Patil. The Bordi resort ahead of Dahanu is also under renovation.

Kamlesh Barot, president of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), said, "The 50-55% bookings show that holidaymakers have adopted austerity measures."

(You need to login first to read complete news).
New User? Register for FREE!
» Back to Travel News