Fast track holidays

Specialised tour operators are offering Indians packages for assorted sporting events.

So what if Chandrababu Naidu's promise of bringing Formula One to India vanished in thin air? The Indian fan is still as crazy as ever about the sport.

Narain Karthikeyan may have had a forgettable debut year on the Formula One circuit, but even that's no dampener "" the Indian travel industry has found a new business opportunity in its burgeoning fan base.

Two or three years back, you wouldn't have caught tour operators offering packages that revolve around a sporting event. But all that has changed now that Formula One has become such a stir among India's speedsters.

Consider this: to watch the likes of Michael Schumacher and Kim Raikkonen vrooming in Malaysia, all that one has to shell out is Rs 22,000, which includes airfare, two nights accommodation and a ticket to watch the race.

The Malaysian Grand Prix will be held on March 19, and the package includes return economy airfare, two nights accommodation in KL on a twin-sharing basis, breakfast on the house, airport as well as the race venue transfers, a guide to help you with the finer points of racing, and just so you can say you've "done" KL, a city tour as well.

Then there are other sports too. With the football world cup on the horizon, airlines and travel operators have started offering packages for the event. Emirates Airlines is offering packages for the FIFA World Cup to be held in Germany later this year.

The packages start from $1,856 per person and include Emirates flights to one of the destinations in Germany "" Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Düsseldorf ""and two nights accommodation from a choice of one of 12 cities where the 2006 FIFA World Cup matches are being played, and a complimentary match ticket to any of the games (including the final).

Says Shankar Vishwanathan, director, Sports Services, a Bangalore-based sports travel and sports event management company, "Indians these days have become avid sports fans and are willing to travel to watch important sporting events."

Sports Services offers both travel as well as event services. It is looking at the upcoming Formula One season as well as all Indian cricket team's overseas tours in 2006, along with some golf events. "Apart from cricket, golf and Formula One are the two sports which find many takers."

Cutting Edge Events, a Mumbai-based sports event management company, for instance, recently had offers on special packages for the Pakistan tour.

The packages included match tickets for two ODIs in Karachi and Lahore, and airfare plus accommodation, all for about Rs 28,000. The attractive package also included transfers, applicable visa charges, airport departure taxes, as well as breakfast and dinner at the hotel.

While cricket remains the big draw in India, by and large it's other sports that command the sort of specialised interest that makes people dump everything else and head off to join the excitement "" to bond with complete strangers "" in some part of the world they might otherwise never have discovered. And with the Commonwealth Games coming up in Melbourne, it's anybodys guess how many takers there will be for its packages.