Travel Agents Gear Up For Cricket World Cup 2003
Rajesh Rodrigues /Mumbai

Edusport Gullinjet Travel (EGT), South Africa has appointed Sachinam Travels Pvt Ltd (STPL) in association with Trust Travels and Tours (TTT) and Keshav Travels (KT) as their official associate travel agents of India for the Cricket World Cup 2003 (CWC).

The CWC to be conducted in South Africa from February 8 to March 23, 2003, will have a strict monitoring of tickets and will not be available with any other travel agents other than the above-mentioned authorised ones. Margaret Gibson, representative, EGT, mentioned, “Ali Bacher, executive director, CWC has warned against illegal trading of tickets for the event. Every ticket issued will have the code number giving details of the person, so there is no way of procuring tickets other than the officially appointed agents. The United Board of South Africa has appointed EGT to distribute tickets overseas. Due to the sophisticated ticketing process that will be used during the CWC, it will be possible to track tickets not purchased by through official travel agent. These tickets will be cancelled and admittance to the venue will be refused.”

The travel agents mentioned above have devised a package for the Indian supporters. Due to the complexity of the playing schedules, the packages are for two or three matches. Speaking on the package, Zakkir Ahmed, managing partner, TTT, said, “Due the widespread schedule of the matches, we have devised a package which will be most suitable for the Indian supporters. The package includes air ticket, tickets for the matches, hotel accommodation, transport to and fro the venue and sightseeing in between two matches. The packages for various games and finals ranges from Rs 75,000 to Rs 1,25,000.”

South African Airways has been chosen as the official airline for the event. Nalini Gupta, general manager, South African Airways, said, “We have four flight a week from Mumbai and due to our frequency, efficiency, manpower and flexibility, we have been chosen as the official airline for CWC.” All tickets for the CWC will be booked on South African Airways.

Mukesh Dand, director, STPL, mentioned, “Since all three of us have a strong presence in major cities in the country, we have formed a consortium to enable supporters to easily obtain tickets for the CWC. We target to sell 1000 packages in the country and if there is more demand, we shall approach the EGT for more tickets. If they are available then we shall release them to Indian supporters.”