Click to play videoMumbai: Ringing in the New Year at a five star hotel within the country could burn a hole of upto Rs 40,000 per night in your pocket.
Favourite holiday spots like Goa and Kerala are giving out rooms at Rs 20,000- Rs 25,000 per night. Some high end packages are also going for a whopping Rs 35,000 a night and more.
Add to this the airfare and your holiday works out to be significantly more expensive than a short trip to Bangkok or Singapore or Sri Lanka. Premium hotel rooms in these foreign destinations are available at anything between $150 to $200 a night.
CMD Raj Travels, Lalith Sheth says, "You are paying 30 per cent more than what you would have paid internationally. So international holidays are cheaper."
Even the smaller three and four star hotels are giving rooms for Rs 10,000- Rs 15,000 per night for the New Year — of course with a dinner and dance thrown in!
And if hotels are cashing in, the airlines can't be far behind. Whether you fly budget or a full fare airline tickets, the cheapest ticket to Goa, for example, is around Rs 12,000 — that's almost as much as the cost of going to Thailand or Malaysia.
Mercury Travel Vice Chairman, Ashwini Kakkar says, "A ticket to Bangkok or Sri Lanka is Rs 12,000 while a ticket to Goa works out to be Rs 17,000. It's not worthwhile going to Goa then."
Packages this year are about 10 per cent more expensive than last year, but this has not deterred people from travelling.
Apart from the regular ones, destinations like Shimla, Manali and Udaipur are also completely sold out. So even if you are ready to splurge to celebrate the New Year, you may just not be able to get yourself a place in your favorite destination.
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