Palace on Wheels cancels trip for want of tourists

Jaisalmer: Due to shortage of tourists, the Palace on Wheels (PoW) has cancelled its last trip scheduled for April 27. For the first time in the history of PoW, two trips had to be cancelled due to lack of tourists.
There has been a big fall in the number of tourists this year. The train's occupancy has been only 48% this year, against 58% last year.The last PoW reached Jaislamer on Sunday with 50 tourists and its trip will be complete on Tuesday. PoW chief senior manager Pradeep Bohra said that due to no bookings, the tourism department had to cancel the last trip of PoW.
Prior to this, on March 30 too, the trip was cancelled as there were no tourists.
He said booking for 2016-17 and 2017-18 has started. For 2017-18, 50 cabins for 100 tourists have been booked and Rs 15 crore has been collected in form of fare, which is a good indication. He said that 2015-16 season was weak as total 1,782 tourists travelled against 2,024 tourists in 2014-15.
Bohra said that the major reason for the decline in number of tourists is worldwide economic slump.