Travel Tales

A little over 25 years have passed since then,and Ghaisas is looking forward to celebrating the group’s 25th anniversary on World Tourism Day (September 27). “After all these years,travel has changed so much because of how much you can learn from the internet and detailed guide books. But the purpose of the group still remains the same — to help people to make the most of their holiday time and budget by learning about a place and planning their trip there carefully,” says Ghaisas. “Tourism is about selling dreams. Travel agents may take you to a national park to spot wildlife,Aad many people have often come back complaining that they didn’t see any wildlife. To really spot good wildlife,you can’t stay at the periphery of the park,you have to go deep inside. At the Corbett Park,you have to go in about 30 km,” she says.

When Ghaisas began the group,she put out newspaper appeals for people to attend the first meet and over 150 people turned up. In the years since,she continues to meet and help more people and families plan their trips,and more than 1,000 families come to her for holiday ideas and advice. They meet once a year on World Tourism Day,when guest speakers are invited to make presentations on paces they have travelled to. One year it might be someone who has stayed at the South Pole,another year it could be someone who went to South America to study the Inca and Mayan traditons. This year,Ghaisas has invited a traveller who walked across the Gobi desert.

She is also excited about a new introduction to be made at the meet – a travel planning website,traveltoolset.com. The website has been developed by Shrirang Joshi,whose parents have been part for the group for several years. The website will also fulfils a similar function – travellers can make itineraries for trips,add their Picasa photo account to it,and can even write a travelogue to go along with it. “The website will help people to organise and plan their trips,and they can add their experiences in a blog along the way. And later,the same information can be of use to another person who wants to travel to the same place,” says Joshi.