South East Asia's loss could be Nepal and India's gain, said Manoj Saraf, a member of Budget Tours.

Budget Tours, which had set an initial target of 600 passengers, had to scale down its target to 250 passengers for its summer group series owing to the Iraq war and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

However, Saraf said that this could be a boon for the domestic tourism. "Goa, Puri, Darjeeling could see some surge in traffic" he said.

As far as Nepal was concerned there appears to be some increase in traffic. Saraf said, Indian Airlines had recently stepped up the frequency of flights to Nepal from two flights a week to three flights a week.

The airlines had earlier brought down the frequency from six flights a week to two flights a week. Budget Tours would also organise weekly departure to Nepal.

Saraf also pointed out that Sri Lanka was another affordable destination, which was gradually becoming popular. The Summer Group Series 2003 oggers a huge destinations like Europe, South East Asia and Australia.

The series comprised eight different packages Bud 1, Bud 2, Bud 3, Bud 10 and European Gala. There were two different extensions available on the Bud 1 package while Bud 2 package also offers an extension thereby making the whole series a combination of eight different packages.

Saraf said, out of the three packages for South East Asia, the cruise package has been put on hold as, Star Cruise has cancelled all its operations.

"South East Asian traffic will take the biggest hit from Kolkata" he said. According to Saraf, Thai Airways, operating three flights a week would be nearly full during April-June and was now doing around 40-50 passengers a week.

The total outbound traffic from India is understood to be in the region of 250,000-300,000 people out of which Kolkata would be around 5-7 per cent.