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Targeting the high-end of the market |
Agents roll out innovative products for the luxury travel and corporate events sectors
By Anand and Madhura Katti
Mumbai – Agents have taken advantage of the world’s focus on India as a partner country at ITB 2007 by diversifying into specialised and niche segments as a competitive strategy.
Le Passage to India Tours and Travels showcased its new segment, LUXE India holidays at ITB this year.
Le Passage to India Tours and Travels managing director, Mr Arjun Sharma, told TTG India: “We are witnessing a huge growth in the consumption of luxury goods and services, especially in travel in the international and domestic markets. These travellers need to be given a very different experience from the stereotyped packaging of the destination. The experience and attention to smaller details that creates a wow in the traveller’s mind is what we would like to give.”
LUXE India offers customers its La Concierge concept – a concierge will be assigned to the traveller from the time of booking until his or her departure. Throughout the journey the concierge will continue to give the
traveller unique insights into India.
Mr Sharma said: “LUXE tours will offer roundtrip journeys in the northern and southern parts of the country with options to stay in beach resorts and ayurvedic centres. The LUXE India customer is an unhurried traveller, spending 50 per cent more time in cities than the average traveller and will have less frequent inter-city journeys.”
The company is targeting celebrities, bankers and high-end individuals from the Asia-Pacific and North American markets.
Mr Sharma said: “We are already getting a good response from specialist tour operators dealing with LUXE.
“Our initial target was only about 100 customers in the first year.
“We envisage this business cannot handle more than 300 people annually on average.”
Kesari Tours & Travels launched its new subsidiary venture Strawberi Holidays at ITB.
Strawberi Holidays director, Mr Sudhir Patil, told TTG India: “We will exclusively cater to FIT and MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) segments. The FIT segment in India has grown at 100 per cent last year and needs special attention; hence our tagline is ‘Holiday as you like it’.”
Kesari has invested US$243,900 into Strawberi, which has 27 staff. It will be launching a website soon and eventually plans to have an online payment gateway.
Mr Patil said: “Many of our clients now ask for five-star accommodation, business-class air travel, self-drive and private transport while travelling abroad.”
Mr Patil said the company was taking a family of 12 to Eastern Europe this week for a two-week tour and a group of 40 to China this month. It has been engaged to take 30 delegates to CPhI, a chemical and pharmaceutical exhibition in Milan in October and incentive groups of 60 to South-east Asia.
Orbit Tours and Trade Fairs has branched off into InOrbit tours, an incentive tour-centric travel agency.
InOrbit Tours CEO, Mr Tarun Malhotra, told TTG India: “Growing business traffic has given rise to companies having more frequent incentive tours. We recently organised an exclusive red themed dinner party at the Great Wall of China for 150 delegates.”
Other popular incentive destinations, Mr Malhotra added, were Thailand and Singapore, while Australia, New Zealand and Europe were also gaining in popularity.
Last month, Travel Mart India launched Matrix Online at B2B.travelmartindia.com, a B2B travel portal for agents.
Travel Mart India.Com CEO, Mr Dharmendra Gursahani, said: “We already had a good presence in the B2C market and it was a natural progression since the B2B market has huge potential.
“We plan to market this through a focused set of affiliate partners.”
Travel Mart India has more than 200 agents dealing with the company offline and these will naturally become
its online clients. It targets to have 10,000 agent clients “within a few years”.
L’Orient Travels has started a new tour programme called Glimpses of India that covers all major destinations in the country. President, Mr Hector D’Souza, said: “Thanks to the boom in Indian aviation, we can cover 12 cities in 16 days.”
The all-inclusive tour costs between US$2,750 and US$2,950 per person and has two fixed dates: October 15 to November 30, and February 15 to March 31.
It can be organised for two to 20 passengers.
Mr D’Souza said: “Visitors can get a glimpse of the vast landscape and cultural differences that exist throughout the country.” L’Orient plans to include India’s Lakshadeep islands in the itinerary next.
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