Recent Trends in Travel

India is an enchanting destination with many captivating images, history and culture. Recent trends indicate that India is fast emerging as the favoured tourist destination of South East Asia. Improvements in road and rail infrastructure has made it much convenient for tourists to travel to different parts of the country. The Golden Quadrilateral project will give a further boost to the road infrastructure by linking the four main metros of India under one mammoth highway project. Construction of pitched roads have also connected a number of small tourist destinations with major towns and cities of India. This has resulted in greater tourist inflow to these places. Infact, many lesser known tourist destinations now figure prominently in the tourist map of India. The construction of Expressways like Mumbai-Pune and Delhi-Noida have made road travel much faster and safer in India.

Even the capital city of New Delhi is adding new feathers to its cap to attract tourists in a big way. The ambitious Delhi Metro Rail Project on the lines of the 'London Tube' is likely to be fully operational by 2008. Some sections of Delhi Metro have already become operational.

Rail services have improved manifold with the introduction of fully air conditioned Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains. In order to make local train travel within an Indian state more comfortable, Jan Shatabdi trains have also been introduced. For the convenience of foreign tourists only, Indrail passes have been introduced which makes train travel for foreigners a hassle free business.

Air travel in India has also become very convenient in present times. Indian Airlines and private operators like Jet and Sahara have introduced many schemes to attract tourists. This includes co-branded credit cards in collaboration with major banks. Indian Airlines and Jet Airways offer Apex fares while Air Sahara auctions seats starting from Re.1. Infact, India has gone in for massive computerisation in the railway and airlines sector. It is worth mentionable that hotel rooms in India can also be booked or cancelled on line.

As a result of developments in infrastructure, travelling to and within India has become much comfortable and safe.