Golden Chariot - Excellent Tourism but poor execution

Golden Chariot is one of the world's finest train trips one can take in terms of a luxury vacation. If you never heard about this train, then's that the summary of this article, people behind Golden Chariot have not done enough to get the word out.

That's problem one and problem two is, keeping the fares at an exorbitant amount that most consider this train as 'Zindagi mein ek baar travel karenge' vacation, which means, will never do it.

Golden Chariot is run by KSTDC, Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation. Karnatka has been hogging the limelight for bringing in foreign exchange for its IT workers and the IT industry. Karnataka has however, a lot to offer in terms of tourism but it's less marketed and not planned well. For instance, Karnataka has some of the best beaches in the world, some better than those of Goa but when it comes to beaches, Goa and Kerala take the cake. They are better portrayed.

There was a minister who once told that World Heritage Title should not be given to Karnataka's Western Ghats. Read that here.

The Golden Chariot has been seeing a dip in revenue year after year and the herculean task of collecting Rs. 60 lakhs per trip is getting further and further away. In fact KSTDC is yet to pay the full arrears it owes to Indian Railways. However, with 40% occupancy which primarily consists of foreigners.

What can KSTDC do:
1. Marketing, Marketing, Marketing (make it aggressive and cater more for domestic ourists). There are Indian Tourists who do not know how majesctic and brilliant can be to travel within in India. (We all suffer from the 'ghar ki murgi daal baraabar' thinking).

2. Bring in packages that can cater to upper middle class, rich, very rich and the elite by bringing in various deals.
- Bring in a less luxury travel option which will rope in plenty of local tourists (at over 1 lakh per passenger, who is willing to pay that kind of money from the non-elite class).
- Attendants should be given cameras and trained to be able to click great photos of the tourists which can act as great memorabilia when the trip ends.
- Sell tickets for break journeys as well rather than forcing tourists to pay for the whole 7 days.