
PATNA: Come summer, and many Patnaites travel out of the city to spend vacations in the hills. Quite many others prefer to fly to foreign shores, say tour and travel agencies.
“The number of Patnaites travelling to foreign countries has constantly gone up in the last five years or so,” said Kamlesh Kumar, who runs a tour and travels agency from Kankarbagh main road.
According to him, though hill stations such as Darjeeling, Shimla, Kullu and Manali continue to beckon most of such families in Patna, there are people who opt for foreign destinations not only during the summer vacations but also during the winter holidays and Dussehra break.
“I make travel and stay bookings for nearly 300 customers in a year. Around 20% of these bookings are for foreign tours,” Kumar said, adding few of them also opt for Europe tour packages.
Joginder Arora, a travel agent based in Boring Road area, said Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand were among favourite destinations. A round trip to Thailand costs nearly Rs 24,000 whereas a round trip to Goa costs much more than that. “People usually get their foreign tour bookings done by major tour and travel agencies based in metros. But we do get 2-3 such clients every holiday season,” he said.