At a time when Rajasthan has witnessed unexpected 10 per cent surge of tourists, the luxury trains being run in the state have failed to woo the tourists. Passenger volume in Palace of Wheels and Heritage Place on Wheels continues to shrink thus incurring losses to the exchequer.
According to the data available with DNA, the revenue of the Palace on Wheels has dipped drastically in last four years and twice its trips were cancelled due to non availability of passengers.
The data asserts that Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC), which runs Palace on Wheels on revenue basis with Indian Railways, earned Rs 27.59 crores in 2017-18, which is almost a Rs 8 crore down from Rs 35.71 crore earned in 2014-15. Number of passengers has reached to 1498 (2017-18) from 2098 (2014-15). Even RTDC was forced to cancel trips twice in last two years continuously. The train started with 35 trips in 2014-15 is now taking 33 trips.
The RTDC has received similar poor response from tourists for its Heritage Palace on Wheels train which started operations last year. Statistics say that the train ran twice only with average occupancy of 21.15 per cent. Over 44 passengers travelled in two trips of the luxury trains, generating revenue of Rs 0.21 crore.
These statistics were tabled in the Lok Sabha by the Modi government in a reply to a unstarred question asked in the Monsoon session. The figures clearly reflect that tourists are distancing themselves from royal luxury trains, though they prefer to tour the state. A significant increase in the number of tourists has been registered in the state in last three years. In 2017, 475.27 lakh tourists came to Rajasthan which was a jump of 10.50% from the previous year.
In 2016, 430.09 lakh tourists had come, while a year before in 2015, 366.63 lakh tourists had arrived in Rajasthan, says the state government data.
Meanwhile, the Union government while tabling its reply in the lower house said that promotion of luxury trains is the responsibility of the corporation operating the trains. In order to make these trains more popular, from time to time, respective state tourism corporations take steps like additional commission, discount, incentives of travel agents, advertisement etc.
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The RTDC has received similar poor response from tourists for its Heritage Palace on Wheels train which started operations last year. Statistics say that the train ran twice only with average occupancy of 21.15 per cent. Over 44 passengers travelled in two trips of the luxury trains, generating revenue of Rs 0.21 crore.
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