Mumbai: With the District Collector of Mumbai declaring the election day as a compulsory holiday for all public and private sector offices, Mumbaikars chose for a quick escapade out of the city, than visit the polling booths to cast their votes.
Mumbaikars believe that with burning issues like PMC Bank scam and felling of trees at Aarey, most of them have lost faith in the governance. Also, getting a leave sanctioned from offices is difficult in the present circumstances, and hence they would like to grab any leave opportunity that comes their way.
Atul Desai, a management professional stated that seeing a long weekend, he made bookings for a vacation, two days after the election dates were announced. He believes his vote is not going to make a big difference.
“This election looks completely one-sided. Our votes won’t make any difference as we all know who is going to win anyway,” said Desai. He took a similar decision during the Lok Sabha elections.
“It’s difficult to get a time out with the family. Thus, the first thing that came to my mind after the poll dates were announced is to head out of town,” he added.
Travel and tourism agents informed that over the last weekend, they witnessed a surge in demand for bookings of hotel and transport services to holiday destinations like Panchgani, Matheran, Lonavala, Mahabaleshwar and Igatpuri.
“The demand for hotels booking and inter-city transport services were higher than usual for the long weekend ahead of the polls,” stated Syed Afroze, a travel and tourism entrepreneur from Andheri.
Afroze said that the demand shot up soon after Mumbai city Collector Shivaji Jondhale announced a compulsory paid holiday for the employees on October 21. He also mentioned that most of the bookings were made between Friday and Monday, as travellers chose to leave Mumbai on Friday night and return by Monday late night or Tuesday early morning.
“Mumbaikars prefer to go out every weekend. But for this weekend, the demand was exceptionally high due to the compulsory holiday announced,” he added.
Similar sentiments were shared by Jayesh Patil, a hotel and transport businessman based in Borivli. Patil said the inter-city taxi booking services made in the last weekend is more than the average bookings he does during a season or vacation.
“Diwali is during the next weekend. But the bookings I got this weekend is more than the bookings I will be making in the combined Dussehra-Navratri and Diwali holiday seasons,” stated Patil.
He also mentioned that as there has been an increase in the number of resorts in the outskirts of Mumbai, the enthusiasm to take a quick getaway has increased among Mumbaikars.
