Not many takers

SPORTS: Twenty20 might be exciting, but not many Indians are going to South Africa for the World Cup

The hype around the Twenty20 World Cup, being held in South Africa, hasn't been able to pull too many Indians to the country's shore. There might be a big party in South Africa for coming two weeks but there wouldn't be many Indians there to revel in it. Or so reveal the booking patterns.

In fact, so low is the demand that a prominent tour operator who specialises in selling sports packages is not even offering bookings for the Twenty20 World Cup.

Going by him, most figures floating around in the market today are inflated and the enquiries have been few and far between. For exceptions, he says, there will always be those who are travelling to South Africa on leisure and may decide catch a game or two here now that the tournament is on.

According to Makemytrip.com spokesperson, the enquiries for Twenty20 are mediocre, and India losing the final at Lords hasn't helped either. He, however, continues to hold on to hope and argues that it is a little early to make any predictions.

"Holiday season in India starts in another two to three weeks. If the tournament was happening in October, we would have surely seen a rush," he says.

South Africa as a destination, on the other hand, is doing quite well "" considering, it is not a cheap destination and the travellers are usually high-end.

Even for Thomas Cook, the response has been modest. Though it is not the official travel agent for the event, Thomas Cook is doing a few corporate groups (40-60 people) with trips to destinations where the matches are being played.

"The destination is doing well, but the enthusiasm around Twenty20 is a bit lukewarm," says Vishal Suri, COO, Leisure Travel, Thomas Cook.

If India gets through the semi-final and then the final, the destination might witness a sudden rush of people wanting to go. This, say the industry watchers, would be a bit difficult because getting visa to South Africa takes at least three to four days.

As of now, SOTC seems to be the only company to have got a healthy figure going. SOTC, which is also the official travel agent for the event, expects 1,000 plus passengers for the Twenty20 World Cup. They are doing more corporate groups for the event than leisure, and these are not very high-end (business partners, associates and dealers).

For leisure travellers, SOTC has designed seven packages for the duration of the tournament, starting from Rs 44,999 up to Rs 1,39,999 for 13 nights.

According to sources, in a price sensitive-market like India, the 20-30 per cent increase in rates in South Africa could have possibly affected decision of many to travel.

A month back, one could have got a much cheaper deal. Looks like the number of Indians going for the next hockey event might eclipse numbers to such cricket tournaments!