Thaindian News

Jaipur, April 19 (IANS) Tourists from countries like Britain, France and Italy want a true insight into ‘Incredible India’, and requests for visiting its rural heartland and less-travelled spots are flooding Indian tour operators, officials say.

Anu D. Singh, an environment scientist from the London University and director of tour company Sambhal Safari, attending travel expo the Great Indian Travel Bazaar here, said response this year has been much better than last year.

“Foreign tour operators are very interested in this kind of an offbeat expedition which they might have never experienced before,” Anu told IANS.

She also said the government was supporting such tours.

Another tour operator, Sankriti, said they were offering packages to offbeat destinations like Jharkhand’s Chatra district.

“We need to showcase places that are hidden and have the true potential. Such tourism products not only help the companies but also add to the revenue of the particular village,” the firm’s manager (operations) Hardeep Singh Sandhu told IANS.

Ancient Indian Travels offers visits to remote places of Orissa, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

“Places like Mandu, Aurangabad and many small cities in Gujarat have great potential and are good markets for companies like us, but they have not been explored in such a big fashion,” the company’s director Ram Sharma said.

“Our focus is to provide the foreign customers something which they have never explored before,” he added.

This year, even Rajasthan’s tourism department has said it is all set to focus on promoting its rural tourism sites, eco parks, sanctuaries and temple towns, besides the traditionally popular places.

The three-day event, which was inaugurated here Sunday, is organised jointly by the union tourism ministry, Rajasthan’s tourism department, and industry lobby Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).