V Ayyappan TNN
April 28, 2009
Chennai: J Rajkumar is 60, but that does not deter him from travelling for leisure. Every summer he packs his bags and travels to hills stations along with his friends from the church. Last year, he went to Coonoor. “This time, we are planning to go to Yelagiri,” he says. So it’s not the young alone who travel for leisure. While a majority of the elderly prefer to make a spiritual trip covering holy spots across the country or the state, a good number of people have started travelling for recreation as well. “A majority of travellers who book our rail-cum-road tours from other states are aged above 60. They travel in groups and want services like pick-up and drop at railway stations, accommodation and food to be taken care of,” an official of the Tamil Nadu tourism department official said. “We have several people coming in from Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. After reaching Chennai, they take one of our packages. Most of them book a 10-day trip,” the official said. Similarly, senior citizens in the city travel out too, especially to visit holy places. “Several senior citizens travel to Gujarat during navaratri festival and Orissa during the Puri car festival,” the official said. Orissa tourism is offering attractive packages for those wanting to travel to Puri for the Jagannath car festival in June. In most instances, it is the sons or daughters who book such tours for their parents. Navagraha temple tours covering temples in and around Chennai and another tour covering navagraha temples across the state are highly popular round the year. However, senior citizens who travel abroad often roll family duties and leisure together. They travel abroad because of three reasons — to meet their children settled or living abroad, for leisure and for medical treatment. USA, Canada and Australia are the popular destinations among senior citizens from south India, especially Chennai. “We get several bookings from senior citizens who travel to USA or Canada. They mostly go there to take care of their grandchildren,” said an official of Thomas Cook. “Indians normally do not like to leave their newborn kids at day care centres or in the care of maids in a foreign country. So grandparents stay with them for six months to take care of the child while parents are away at work,” the official added. But there is a good percentage of elderly people who plan a pleasure trip to USA or Australia because they have relatives living there. Lalitha K, a senior citizen, visited the United States recently because her son lives in Charlotte. During her six-months stay there, she visited the Niagara Falls, Disneyland and the Statue of Liberty.
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