How and why Tour operators and Online Booking is ruining visits to NATIONAL PARKS
It was a welcome change that many National Parks esp those offering safaris in Project Tiger reserves went online. One could book their safaris online and proceed for a good vacation. The only other alternative earlier was to wake up early at 3-4 am and stand in the queue at the reservation offices to fetch a safari, remember the number of safaris is limited and the crowd is generally is excess during good seasons.
The same so to be customer friendly approach is going horribly wrong, I will partially exclude Gir (lion sanctuary) but not completely from the hassles online booking is causing the traveler -
1. Growing nexus of agents, hoteliers and reservation offices - the famous parks of MP and Rajasthan are difficult to book almost always as the people mentioned above have an arrangement going for them. They can make some quick money by offering the same safari at premium, or attracting travelers to their resorts.
2. The redtape at the booking office - you may fetch a reservation much in advance but you may not mention the names of your co travellers, these could be your friends or family or at times you may wish to split the costs at the spot with some needy traveler. However the babus throw in their weight to ensure even if you make it you spend a good time massaging their egos. I experienced this twice now, at Gir I had to pay additional money to allow my cousin be part of the gypsy of which only riders were us. At Tadoba I spent over 30 minutes trying to convince the forest officer that we mean no harm and the co travellers have no issues allowing us with them, while a seat on the gypsy still remained empty.
3. The Agent - this may be very specific to what we went through even after booking a trip some 50 days in advance. We were promised an itinerary, the enthusiastic us planned an additional day to the trips Tadoba, only ending up with a one day short visit as the Agent's actual itinerary was a total deviation from one promised. The genesis of using the agent, lack of permits in the popular zone, lack of information of the area and the confusion around what zone to take. Tadoba is a village with no ATM, no mobile network etc etc.
4. Plethora of gates and zones -where would you find the information that Mohurli a more established Tourist destination at Tadoba is 80km from another core zone gate called Kolara. This thing can happen anywhere, I rely heavily on tripadvisor but this query was not even being considered given its a less researched park.
I believe Eco tourism in India has a huge potential, beauty humongous, diversity unmatchable however our quest to only search the big cat and the craze to see it is actually detrimental to travel interests.
All together the trip to Tadoba was not as rewarding, though it convinced me I travel well when I plan everything myself!
Best way to Kill time at Nagpur airport having preponed the flight by 24 hours....!!
It was a welcome change that many National Parks esp those offering safaris in Project Tiger reserves went online. One could book their safaris online and proceed for a good vacation. The only other alternative earlier was to wake up early at 3-4 am and stand in the queue at the reservation offices to fetch a safari, remember the number of safaris is limited and the crowd is generally is excess during good seasons.
The same so to be customer friendly approach is going horribly wrong, I will partially exclude Gir (lion sanctuary) but not completely from the hassles online booking is causing the traveler -
1. Growing nexus of agents, hoteliers and reservation offices - the famous parks of MP and Rajasthan are difficult to book almost always as the people mentioned above have an arrangement going for them. They can make some quick money by offering the same safari at premium, or attracting travelers to their resorts.
2. The redtape at the booking office - you may fetch a reservation much in advance but you may not mention the names of your co travellers, these could be your friends or family or at times you may wish to split the costs at the spot with some needy traveler. However the babus throw in their weight to ensure even if you make it you spend a good time massaging their egos. I experienced this twice now, at Gir I had to pay additional money to allow my cousin be part of the gypsy of which only riders were us. At Tadoba I spent over 30 minutes trying to convince the forest officer that we mean no harm and the co travellers have no issues allowing us with them, while a seat on the gypsy still remained empty.
3. The Agent - this may be very specific to what we went through even after booking a trip some 50 days in advance. We were promised an itinerary, the enthusiastic us planned an additional day to the trips Tadoba, only ending up with a one day short visit as the Agent's actual itinerary was a total deviation from one promised. The genesis of using the agent, lack of permits in the popular zone, lack of information of the area and the confusion around what zone to take. Tadoba is a village with no ATM, no mobile network etc etc.
4. Plethora of gates and zones -where would you find the information that Mohurli a more established Tourist destination at Tadoba is 80km from another core zone gate called Kolara. This thing can happen anywhere, I rely heavily on tripadvisor but this query was not even being considered given its a less researched park.
I believe Eco tourism in India has a huge potential, beauty humongous, diversity unmatchable however our quest to only search the big cat and the craze to see it is actually detrimental to travel interests.
All together the trip to Tadoba was not as rewarding, though it convinced me I travel well when I plan everything myself!
Best way to Kill time at Nagpur airport having preponed the flight by 24 hours....!!
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