Readings becomes tour operator
Readings is expanding its offering to customers beyond books and music, by hosting a tour to the Jaipur Literature Festival in India in January next year.
Readings event coordinator Chris Gordon told Bookseller+Publisher the idea for a trip to India came about after census information showed that Australia will soon have the highest population of Indians outside India—‘and yet I knew very little about Indian writers’, she said.
‘Readings are keen to offer our customers opportunities to expand knowledge of contemporary writers and given that the Jaipur Festival has very quickly established in itself as one of the largest festivals in the world, what better place to begin?’
‘The festival sounds absolutely amazing,’ she said. ‘It is free to attend and is a five-day-long celebration of both Indian writers and high-profile authors from all over the world.’
This is not the first tour Gordon has taken. ‘I did last year take a tour group to the Ubud Writers Festival and it was a marvellous time,’ she says. ‘On one hand it sounds arduous. Being away with a group of strangers, but actually what one finds out very quickly is that the participants are not really strangers in the traditional sense. We all love the same thing. Books, authors and travel.’
Readings is offering ‘a small group of engaged booklovers’ the chance to accompany Gordon and Mark Rubbo on a 10-day tour to India, which will also include five days sightseeing says Gordon, ‘because if one is travelling that far why not see the Taj Mahal!’
Readings said the tour requires 10 attendees to be viable. The cost of the tour, excluding flights, is $3000. For more information see the Readings website here.
Do you know of any other booksellers that have hosted international travel tours? Let us know at bookseller.publisher@thorpe.com.au
Category: Local news
