mumbai all those jain meals bonus cruises and shopping festivals seem to be paying off organised outbound travel or the number of indians signing up for foreign tour packages was up 1015 per cent during aprilseptember this year and tour operators are trying to lure more traffic with lower prices in winter tour operators are taking advantage of a distinct shift in preferences for holiday destinationswhile the us and europe are no longer on mustsee list a number of alternative destinations have emerged as new favourites thanks to promotions by tourism boards of other countries so whether its mauritius dubai or south africa operators have designed lowpriced packages to increase business to these countriesbusiness was up 20 per cent for us in the aprilseptember our valuepackages are working well in the market this year we are offering the same tours as in 2001 for up to 300 less says kuoni indias outbound division coo zubin karkariabut karkaria wants to ensure that traditional destinations like europe continue to figure on the travellers list by making these tours more affordable for instance kuoni has just launched a winter package called tour europe ka keemat far east ki which is a 10day package for 999similarly there are a number of packages to australia malaysia thailand and singapore including twoday cruises for rs 27990commenting on the increase in outbound organised travel this year thomas cook india ceo ashwini kakkar says there is an increase in business of 5 8 per cent but i think it is more a result of countryspecific promotions by tourism boards like malaysia and dubaiagreeing that prices are down this year kakkar says promotions by airlines have also helped to increase outbound traffic