Jaipur: Palace on Wheels will start the maiden journey of the tourist season on Sept 17 with 42 tourists. Officials of the operation and management company said the season looks better compared to last year.A representative of the operation and management company said, “The current trends are positive for the train. If there are no negative geopolitical surprises, the train will attract 20% more tourist traffic compared to last year,” he said.It has planned two journeys in Sept with bookings of around 40 seats, which may increase marginally when the journey starts. While the operator is planning at least three journeys both in Oct and Nov, Dec bookings were very healthy, it said. Besides Dec, Feb is another month for which bookings are good.In fact, in Oct, Nov, and Jan, the number of journeys could reach three in the best-case scenario. But two journeys are already in place for these months. If the demand is good, the train takes four rides in a month.The private operator is promoting the luxury train in Rajasthan Domestic Tourism Mart. “Besides the tourism exhibitions in the country, we are participating in most of the global tourism exhibitions to promote Palace on Wheels,” the representative of the operator said.This would be the second full season for OM company to run the train. “We refurbished the train to provide the best experience to tourists. But all depends on the global tourist movement as travellers in the train are mostly foreign nationals or non-resident Indians,” he said.
