Operators cash in on 'election tourism' as five states go to poll

Gujarat-based firm ties up with 100 operators to woo foreigners with customised poll tourism plans

Foreign tourists visiting India this spring will have an added attraction; 'poll tourism'. Gujarat-based Akshar Travels, which has tied up with almost 100 tour operators across the country, has designed poll tourism packages targeted at foreign nationals during the upcoming assembly polls in the states of Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Punjab, UP.

The agency, which already had tried its hands at election tourism during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with customised Varanasi packages (the seat which had seen two political heavy weights Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal fight it out amongst themselves), is confident to get at least 2,000 booking for this special itinerary.

The itinerary will include travelling along with campaign vehicles, getting front row seating at rallies etc apart from local sight-seeing. "Given that all the states are tourist attractions in their own right, is an added bonus," Manish Sharma, owner of Akshar Travels and chairman of the Gujarat Tourism Development Society. For instance, a 10-day itinerary has been chalked out spanning UP-Delhi-Punjab that will include local visits as well as the chance to be a part of a an election rally etc.

The agency is already in talks with political parties, as they need to plan in advance for the upcoming mega rallies that are expected to see huge turnouts. "This kind of a package is targeted at the foreign tourist only, for them this is a whole new experience, watching election campaigning in full fervour, and soaking in the excitement," Sharma said.

Last time during the Varanasi itinerary, his firm had received around 3,000 bookings, all from foreigners. "We had taken a team from Atlanta to the Lucknow rally of Narendra Modi, which had roughly seen a 300,000 people turn-out during the run up to the Lok Sabha elections 2014," he added. In fact, this group of tour operators met Modi in New Delhi last year in July and briefed him about the advent of 'election tourism' as a genre.

As such foreign tourist arrival has grown by 10.7 per cent on a year on year basis to 8.89 million between January to December 2016, as per data from the ministry of tourism. December alone saw a growth of 13.6 per cent, despite demonetisation of high value currency notes creating a cash crisis in the country.