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The year 2013 is on its way out but are we really planning a blast to ring in the New Year? The good news is – Indians are still undeterred by the falling <keyword id="6355302" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rupee">rupee</keyword> and looking forward to outbound travel in the coming holidays, just like they did this summer. But the way they travel is definitely changing, according to a senior executive of a Delhi-based <keyword id="6607315" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="OTA">OTA</keyword>. Overseas travel no longer means the ritual rush through <keyword id="6357117" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="bangkok">Bangkok</keyword> or <keyword id="6356662" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Singapore">Singapore</keyword> – the global destinations closest to home and perhaps the least expensive. Of course, these places are not yet marked off the list, but the experienced and the well-heeled seem to have caught the travel bug of a different kind. 
 <keyword id="1960912" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Offbeat-destinations">Offbeat destinations</keyword> are getting increasingly popular among Indians, says Saurabh Srivastava, vice-president (marketing &amp; product strategy) at ixigo.com, a travel planning site and search engine that aggregates and curates travel information to help consumers. 
 “Of the 2.5 million visitors coming to our site month on month, we see some very clear and emerging trends. While the <keyword id="1960914" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Regular-overseas-travellers">regular overseas travellers</keyword> are increasingly looking at offbeat destinations to try out something different, first-timers or those who haven’t ventured outside the country too much, are still looking at <keyword id="1960915" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Popular-destinations">popular destinations</keyword> like Bangkok, Singapore, <keyword id="8695" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Malaysia">Malaysia</keyword> and <keyword id="6355478" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Australia">Australia</keyword> – the main attractions being <keyword id="6396451" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="beaches">beaches</keyword>, <keyword id="60543" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Water-sports">water sports</keyword> and <keyword id="6368952" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="shopping">shopping</keyword>,” he observes. 
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 Try planning a holiday if you love these destinations too. Just remember, sometimes, the best travel happens farthest from <keyword id="823132" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="80" keywordseo="home-and-away">home and away</keyword> from your everyday ambience. Catch the sun on a <keyword id="1553372" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="foreign-soil">foreign soil</keyword> this New Year and bon voyage!

Want To Vacation Abroad? These 12 Places Are Creating The
Buzz These Holidays

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"> REUTERS/Anton Tarasov</div></div></div>MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko was found guilty on Tuesday in an acid attack that nearly blinded the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet and tarnished the reputation of the renowned theatre.
A Moscow judge said Dmitrichenko and two co-defendants had intentionally caused grievous bodily harm toSergei Filin, who had a jar of acid splashed in his face by a masked attacker on the night of January 17.
"Their guilt in committing the crime has been established in full," judge Yelena Maximova said. She was expected to issue a sentence later on Tuesday.
Handcuffed in a courtroom cage with his co-defendants, Dmitrichenko looked impassively towards a window and showed little emotion as Maximova read the verdict from a thick sheaf of papers.
Prosecutors have asked for a nine-year prison sentence for Dmitrichenko, who was accused of ordering the attack, ten years for Yuri Zarutsky, accused carrying it out, and six years for Andrei Lipatov, accused of driving Zarutsky to the scene.
The attack, which left Filin writhing in pain and badly damaged his eyesight, revealed bitter rivalries behind the scenes of the Bolshoi Theatre and damaged the standing of one of <keyword id="6358826" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword>'s most prominent cultural institutions.
Dmitrichenko has acknowledged he wanted Filin roughed up and had given Zarutsky the go-ahead to hit him, but said he had not expected acid to be used.
The dancer, who joined the Bolshoi as a teenager in 2002 and made his name playing villains such as the murderous tsar in the ballet "Ivan the Terrible", had pleaded not guilty.
The judge said Dmitrichenko had monitored Filin's movements on the night of the attack and told Zarutsky by mobile phone the artistic director was on his way home from the theatre.
Zarutsky, who has admitted guilt, has said that throwing acid in Filin's face was his own idea and he had not told Dmitrichenko of his plan.
The prosecution said Dmitrichenko was motivated by a conflict with Filin, 43. In court last week, prominent former Bolshoi dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze said Filin had denied roles to both Dmitrichenko and his girlfriend, a ballerina.
TROUBLED THEATRE
The case marks one of the worst crises at the colonnaded Bolshoi Theatre, which stands a stone's throw from Red Square and the Kremlin, since its foundation in 1776.
The Russian government dismissed the theatre's longtime director Anatoly Iksanov in July, in an effort to put scandal behind it, and the Bolshoi declined to renew its contract with Tsiskaridze, who had feuded with Iksanov and Filin.
But the trial again trained a spotlight on backstage bitterness exposed by the attack. In a courtroom confrontation, Filin said Dmitrichenko had spread false allegations that he had played favorites and had love affairs with ballerinas.
Defense witnesses, meanwhile, portrayed Filin as an imperious hothead and Dmitrichenko as a champion of others in the company who feared to speak out against the artistic director, who has considerable power to make or break careers.
The judge also pointed to testimony that said Dmitrichenko had accused Filin of favoritism in the distribution of grants.
Filin returned to the Bolshoi in September after months of treatment in Germany, but his sight remains impaired after more than 20 operations and he wears dark glasses to protect his damaged eyes.
(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova; Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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Want To Vacation Abroad? These 12 Places Are Creating The Buzz These Holidays

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Russian Dancer Convicted Over Acid Attack On Director Of Bolshoi Theater

Maria Tsvetkova, Reuters

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