Poll tourism set to draw foreigners

kolkata — Bolstered by an encouraging trend in the last general elections and subsequent state assembly polls, many tour operators and travel companies are gearing up for poll tourism, mainly targeting foreign tourists as political parties gear up for the April-May Lok Sabha contest.

Poll tourism, which is emerging fast as a new segment, is not considered to be leisure travel and many operators are betting on overseas students studying in colleges and universities, media persons, youngsters and researchers keen to witness Indian elections to join their tours.

“This new segment is fast emerging in India as overseas students, researchers and youngsters are increasingly taking interest in the world’s largest democracy. They

are keen to see how the Election Commission of India conducts the poll process, which is a humongous exercise,” Gujarat-based Akshar Travels chief Manish Sharma said.

According to tour and travel operators, poll tourism as a concept was tested in the Gujarat Assembly polls in 2012 and had received “good response” in the 2014 general elections and subsequent state assembly polls, though the scale of

operations was on the “lower side”.

“This time, operators are gearing up and have started getting enquiries. About 5,000 tourists, taking the accumulated data from various operators, had come for the elections in 2014 from the US, the UK, UAE, Japan, Germany, France and many other European countries. Our expectation is that over 10,000 tourists will come this time for the polls,” Sharma said. —