Time was when a trip abroad was a rare and wonderous occurrence in the family. The illustrious uncles who travelled abroad - generally to England to add finishing touches to their education – was embalmed in family chronicles. How the world has changed! Now all that happens to your trip oversees is that it gets posted on Instagram.
Many things have contributed to this revolution. The freeing up of foreign exchange restrictions, the buoyancy of the economy and a more adventurous mindset among Indians. But, perhaps, the most significant of them all is the invention of package tours.
Package tours are based on sound principles: most people would prefer assurance over the uncertainty of travelling in strange lands. People are also drawn to the idea of getting ‘more’ for ‘less’ – more places to see, more people to meet and more experiences to be had – and all this for less money. It prompts tourists to insert checkboxes in their itinerary: Paris – Tick; Michelangelo’s Pieta – Tick; Mt Fuji - Tick or rather half a tick because the noble mountain was shrouded in mist.
It follows then that we will be force-fed countries, with multiple geographies whisked into an edible, high-protein paste. As immortalised by the song ‘If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium’, we let the calendar become our compass and tell us where we are. But all this pales into insignificance compared to grander accomplishment of getting the world on a platter.
Package tours have democratised foreign travel, making it affordable across income levels. It has also demystified exotic menus. You suddenly have on your plate what you had earlier envied on the pages of plush magazines and your palate can explore many countries – Japan, Vietnam, Italy, Spain…. The small disappointments in trying to master chopsticks and the bigger disasters of having your precious cargo of alcohol impounded is so common, it has stopped being embarrassing.
Many impulses drive the industry, chief of which is FOMO. This is expressed in the universal Indian suspicion that you are not getting your money’s worth or the thought that someone somewhere has struck a better deal – more Bangkok for their buck. So, window seats are to be fought over and buffet plates are piled high because the fillet of which you have grabbed a fistful may not be available when you come around next.
Given all this, managing a tour group is no picnic. Take a group of 30 Indians and you have 30 plus opinions on whether you should huff and puff up a mountain to get a good view or drop in at the bar and enjoy the even better view conjured up by strong local brew.
The group you lead, like all Indians, may be literate but littering. The irrepressible V.S. Naipaul had said that ‘the Indian who has not traveled abroad cannot and does not know what civic cleanliness means’. You will find the truth of his words everywhere from campsite to cafeteria to cable car. When you see a trail of sev ghatia strewn along your pristine mountain path, you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that a group of your countrymen are in the vicinity.
In its early days, package tours were supposed to follow inflexible routines but many are now doing their damndest to change that impression. In fact, I read about a leading tour group offering ‘Honeymoon Tours’ to Kulu Manali. It mentioned that the accommodation included rooms on a single, double or triple sharing basis. Surely, that is most accommodating of all tastes!
Finally, at journey’s end, you wind up with key chains and fridge magnets, a few words of the local language you have picked up, and a coach full of friends to whom you say ‘Adios’, ‘Au Revior’ or 'Sayonara' to suit the location. Promises are rashly made that we will keep in touch and stay friends for life. We rarely do. Tomorrow, a new place, a new set of friends and a new package tour.
All good things face existential risks and package tours are no exception. Gen Next doesn’t seem to have taken to such trips with the gusto of their grandparents. This generation would rather go far off the beaten track. They prefer slower journeys where they can ‘do their own thing’ at their own pace. If this trend were to pick up, the golden age of package tours may end and we may have to say Sayonara. But if all that happens, it will be sometime in the future. Till then, we can safely say that we enjoyed the ride.
