INDIAN and Chinese luxury travellers are heading for Africa. Nairobi-based Holiday Bazaar, which specialises in wildlife tours and safaris in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, has seen a surge in FIT traffic from Asia-Pacific over the last few years, especially from India and China.
Thus, the sole purpose of Holiday Bazaar’s marketing director, Nishma Shah, here is to target India and China outbound players. She said the two countries had transformed into the company’s top two Asia-Pacific source markets, compared to eight years ago, when there was practically “zero traffic” from these areas.
“Indians are travelling like god knows what. Their middle class, in particular, has a lot of spare cash,” she said. “They also used to be last minute, but now they plan in advance.”
According to Shah, Holiday Bazaar’s FIT traffic from India has “increased by maybe 60 per cent or more” over the last four years. Its customer base from China, on the other hand, has seen a 20 per cent boost over the past two years.
“We cater to a lot of mid- to high-end FITs from India and China,” she said. “They tend to stay in four- to five-star accommodation and their budget is about US$4,000-US$5,000 per pax. Indians stay an average of two weeks, while Chinese stay about 12 days.”
Shah said the burgeoning outbound numbers from Asia-Pacific were in stark contrast to the shrinking travel demand from Europe.
– Read more in ITB Asia 2011 Official Daily – Day 1 issue
