Sudipta Dev – Mumbai
Headquartered in Agra, Eternal Vacations has its presence in Varanasi, Lucknow, and also Khajuraho. An important part of the itinerary that the company offers to its clients are Heritage Walks in the different destinations it operates in. “The main focus is not to do the run of the mill programmes, but develop innovative ideas, and offer off beat programmes to travellers. That’s what we term it as- known destinations, unknown sights. Through these walks the travellers can explore the unexplored – they can still come back to the same city and experience it in a different way,” said Rajat Bhakri, founder, Eternal Vacations. The walks also reveals to them the real culture of the place, its history, cuisine and social facets.
For the travellers all the interesting stories and anecdotes they get to know during the walks is an eye opener, something that they would have never discovered if they just visited important monuments or popular tourist sites. The clientele is primarily inbound, however according to Bhakri, the domestic market is picking up big time now. “We need to offer them varied experiences. They are the ones who also explore these cities from close quarters in a very different way. We take them to the old lanes and bylanes of the city, where they genuinely explore many aspects, for instance the story behind the name of the lane,” mentions Bhakri. He gives an example when while walking through a bylane in Agra they came across a big haveli where the emblem of Queen Victoria was there on an iron railing. “When we tried to find the reason behind we could not find anything. After searching through many books and talking to learned people we realised that in British times iron was not cast in India, it was always cast in the UK and exported from there, which therefore had the emblem. It is interesting to know about this little known fact from history and share this with travellers,” he said.