As the high-flying corporate sector faces the heat of global economic meltdown, guess who’s keeping the cash registers ringing for the Indian travel and tourism industry? Public sector employees.

Cash-rich with hiked salaries and arrears paid under the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission, those working for the Central government, public sector undertakings, banks and insurance companies are the biggest chunk of people finding reasons to travel for leisure this season, at a time when the tourism industry has suffered a fall in business globally.

“As the reimbursement limit for the leave travel concession (LTC) benefits has been enhanced now and the number of employees enjoying higher LTC entitlement has also increased, the number of government sector employees taking our tour packages has gone up this year,” said the tour co-coordinator (outbound) of Spring Travels.

It’s no surprise, therefore, that tour and travel companies are offering special domestic and international LTC packages this season exclusively for government sector employees.

Be it popular domestic tourist spots like Goa, Kerala, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and states in the North-east or short-haul international tourist destinations like Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and Maldives, tour operators have attractive and well-calculated LTC packages for both segments.

While a three- to nine-day international tour package costs 17,000 rupees to 51,000 rupees (US$345-$1,036) per person, domestic packages cost 3,100 rupees to 15,000 rupees per head.

Though air travel has registered a fall in the past few months, as the number of government employees entitled to air travel has gone up, it’s fetching good business for the airline industry.

“The in thing among government employees at this moment is international travel. Almost 95 per cent of passport holders taking LTC packages are first timers,” said a tour operator.

Operators say the demand for LTC packages has already increased by about 30 per cent and they are hoping for more business in the near future, as “government employees would not let their LTC benefits lapse unutilised”.