New Holiday Spot in Chennai !

34th India Tourist and Industrial Fair 2008

Island grounds in Chennai was jam packed due to mass entry of holiday enthusiasts finding their way to spend the Sunday evening at the fair when we had a round-up on 03 Feb 2008. It is the regular spot where the fair is conducted in the past many years.

Surprisingly, the entrance of the fair was engulfed by long queue of cars besides non-stop flow of two wheelers. Does it indicate improving life style of Chennaites? Nevertheless it confirms that the tourism fair is the hot spot for all class.

As we entered in from the rear entrance on the Anna Salai, we had to take a long haul to reach the ticket counters. It is recommended to enter from the main entrance on the beach road to watch the fair in the right sequence.

The fair is full of shops, stalls, dizzy rides, exhibits, snacks and all those accessories of an ideal fair. This year we find many thriller spots like Dracula cave, Den of the Ghost etc. as a result of overwhelming response from public in the previous years. But visitor feedback indicates that the excitement did not meet their expectations.

Food and snacks stall are of plenty in number offering varieties ranging from pop corn, sugarcane juice, candies, bajji, bonda, delhi appalams & more. A news paper report says, 10,000 appalams are prepared per day, that are dried in the sun to be oil fried and sold in the evening.

Next exciting thing in the fair are the dizzy rides - cup & saucers, giant wheels, roller coaster, bumper cars, kids train and what not? Majority of the crowd revolve around these rides and enjoyed them more than once some times. After all the rides are not so expensive when compared to the excitement that they have in store to offer to those ride lovers!

Shops as usual had all those routine stuff ranging from cooking ware, arts & crafts, home decors, electronics, etc. Interestingly a fancy shop that was pulling the crowd was having a large collection of articles offered at a flat price of Rs.10/- each. To our surprise we have noticed even stalls for computers, mobile phones & accessories etc. Woo the customer in the middle of their excitement seems to be the funda of selling those white goods in a tourism fair stall. Hope it helps them to improve the visibility of the brand and the price offers that they make to the public. Right place to catch the attention of thousands of people. It makes sense !

Other interesting stalls are the ones that displayed fishes in aquariums and birds in cages. Those are crowded by kids to watch those tiny little living things catching their attention. Other stalls that children enjoyed are the science exhibition, dancing mickey etc.

Last but not the least are the stalls set up by the government departments. Revenue, Electricity, Slum clearance board, Railways and Police are some to mention. Good work and interesting content did not fail to attract people who were patient enough to come in queue and take a glimpse of every stall till the end.

The tickets are priced at Rs.7.00 for adults and Rs.5.00 for children. Fair is open for public between 3.00 pm to 10.00 pm on weekdays and 11.00 am to 10.00 pm on Sundays and holidays. City buses are plying through this hot spot connecting all parts of Chennai. A special city bus counter is available in the beach road entrance / exit to guide the public to the buses that keep coming in so that none are left stranded even at the odd hours after the close of the fair in the night. It is learnt that the fair attracts as much as 60,000 visitors on a holiday. That makes this fair a preferred holiday destination for the Chennaites, within the reach of their city.

Hope this write up gives a realistic feel of visiting this fair. Being in Chennai it would not be fair if you do not visit this most happening spot at least once.

More about the fair soon. Watch this space !