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` 50/-A DDP PUBLICATION Pages: 64 Vol. XXIV No. 23; December 1st fortnight issue 2012

Incredible India chose thelargest travel event, WTM2012 to announce a path-

breaking shift in its marketingfocus as it announced newcampaigns for the domesticand international market.Leading the India delegates,K Chiranjeevi, Minister ofState for Tourism, Govt. of

India, announced in front ofkey stakeholders that the sec-ond phase of the IncredibleIndia campaign focusses onthe international and domes-tic travellers.

“The Incredible Indiacampaign, which waslaunched in 2002, in its

phase 2 will go through aparadigm shift to move awayfrom a product or destination

focus to get consumer specif-ic. The shift is in line with ourobjective to promote our

country as a 365-day desti-nation in overseas market

K Chiranjeevi, Minister of State for Tourism, Government of India announced travellerspecific campaign for international and domestic market, while literally gunningdown the expensive destination tag in his first stride at WTM 2012 in London.

DE E PA SE T H I & DE V I KA J E E T I N LO N D O N

K ChiranjeeviMinister of State for TourismGovernment of India

The two-day aviationconference, CAPAIndia Aviation

Summit 2012 by CAPA(Centre for Asia-PacificAviation), witnessed thedecision makers of the

Indian aviation sector, indus-try experts and internationalinvestors speaking about thevarious challenges, issues,opportunities and the wayforward for the Indian avia-tion sector. The power-packed business sessionstouched upon themes like‘India Market Strategies for

foreign airlines and airports’,‘The LCC story in India’,‘What Next for Full ServiceAirlines in India? Issues,Challenges, Opportunitiesand an Action Plan’, ‘LCCstories from the frontline:Success, mistakes, learningsand next steps, etc.However, the most talked

about topic was about an air-line model, appropriate forthe Indian aviation market.

According to BillFranke, Managing Partner,IndiGo Partners, the Indianairline operators need to firstunderstand the model theywant to operate on instead of

operating on a hybrid model.“In India, airline operatorsare baffled with the operatingmodel. Operate an airlinethat fits your model and exe-cute it. The cost and fleet willlater support your model. Isuppose the LCC model is the

During the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2012 in Mumbai, the Indian Aviation experts evaluatedthe market opportunities in India, expanding the customer base and about breaking the cartel.

It’s not about tweaking airfares!AN I TA JA I N

Incredible India - A paradigm shift

Product focus shifts to traveller

Contd. on page 43

Contd. on page 18

The shift is in line with our objectiveto promote our country as a 365-daydestination in overseas market anddeliver the international visitors anexperience they are looking for

Gold rush drivesLCCs in India

See full story on page 04

Kolkata, a newtransit hub

See full story on page 08

AP:India’s next big MICE destination

See full story on page 24

Namaste Londonwith wellwishers @NetworkTalk

See full story on page 44

BULLETIN

Tiger Trust and WWFIndia jointly organised

the Kailash SankhalaMemorial lecture every yearsince 1996. Themed as ‘TheScience of Saving the Tigers’,the lecture was delivered byPadamshri Dr. K. UllasKaranth, a well-known biol-ogist and scientist who hascontributed immensely to theworld of conservation.Karanth believes a collabora-tion of global and local inter-ests can secure a future fortigers in the wild.

Concerned about thestate of Tiger Tourism in thecountry, Karanth laments,“High-end tourism unfortu-nately has become the trend

nowadays. This targets spec-tacular animals such astigers, lions, rhinos and ele-phants that attract top dol-lars. Consequently, in most ofthe good wildlife reserves,the prices charged for entry,vehicle rides and accommo-dation have all skyrocketedbeyond the reach of averagecitizens. However, as the sizeof these reserves or their car-rying capacity has notexpanded, richer tourists aresteadily squeezing out budgettourists.”

Exclusion of the budgettourists is far more likely toundermine long-term publicsupport for wildlife conserva-tion in India than the court’ssuspension of tourism in afew high-profile tiger

With the global interest in the long-term viability of tiger populations in thewilds of Asia, especially in India, it was a treat for tiger lovers as they gatheredin big numbers to witness the Annual Kailash Sankhla Memorial Lecture – 2012.

The Science of Saving the Tigers

TT BU R E AU

The presentgeneration ofstudents are thewatchdog forthe future oftiger survival

Amit SankhalaTrustee, Tiger Trust

Tiger Trust is anationalorganisationworking towardsconservation of wildlife

Anjana GosainHonorary Secretary, Tiger Trust

Contd. on page 51

STATISTICS

VIEWPOINT

Incredible India is in top gear to pursueniche opportunities in addition to

harnessing its rich heritage, culture andnature. K Chiranjeevi, the HonourableMinister for Tourism, while announcing apath-breaking shift in its marketing focus innew promotional campaigns, also made itclear that Incredible India will go full throttleon promoting niche products like adventure,sports, eco, golf, pilgrimage and wellness toname a few.

India offers wide range of experiences like no other destination. It has now alsoenvisaged garnering at least one per cent ofinternational arrivals, which is soon going totouch the one billion mark. Niche productsare capable of creating incremental demandfor destination India in addition to itsconventional cultural, heritage, historic andnature-based travel attractions.

A representative of the Buddhist HeritageTourism Promotion Council projects that outof over 600 million Buddhists in the world,150 million people are practicing and arewilling to travel to witnesss Buddhistheritage. As per their rough estimates, Indiacan very well attract 1 per cent or 1.5 millionvisitors annually by launching a dedicatedglobal promotional campaign on its Buddhist heritage. Similarly, other nichesegments can greatly stimulate the collectiveincremental demand.

There is a growing interest in visitingdestination India, which is evident from theresponse to its Visa-on-Arrival scheme. Asper the recent statistics released by theMinistry of Tourism, during the periodJanuary-October 2012, a total number of12,273 Visa-on-Arrivals (VoAs) were issuedas compared to 9,739 VoAs during thecorresponding period of 2011, registering agrowth of 26 per cent. Last month, a totalnumber of 1,457 VoAs were issued underVoA Scheme as compared to 1,234 VoAsduring October 2011 registering a positivegrowth of 18.1 per cent.

To top that, there is a subtle wave ofoptimism and courage in the travel trade.They seem more confident of growing evenwith the prevalent challenges. It’s the righttime that both the private and public sectorsexplore synergies to reach the 10 millioninternational visitor’s mark.

Niche is life

TRAVTALK is a publication of DDP Publications Private Limited. Allinformation in TRAVTALK is derived from sources, which we consider reliable and a sincere effort is made to report accurate information. It is passed on to our readers without any responsibility on our part. The publisher regret that he cannot accept liability for errors and omissions contained in this pub-lication, however caused. Similarly, opinions/views expressedby third parties in abstract and/or in interviews are not neces-sarily shared by TRAVTALK. However, we wish to advice our readersthat one or more recognised authorities may hold different viewsthan those reported. Material used in this publication is intendedfor information purpose only. Readers are advised to seek specific

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India shows significant growth across the board astourism benefits from a robust economy.

Air transportation sales are forecast to grow dra-matically thanks to low air travel penetration.

Low-cost carriers such as IndiGo and SpiceJet arehelping to shake up the market.

Domestic travel is predicted to reach 1.6 billiontrips by 2016 driven by the desire of the rising mid-dle class to explore their own country.

The WTM Global Trends Report (GTR) 2012, in association with Euromonitor International, highlights the emerging trends in the global travel and tourism industry. The Global Trends Report 2012 hasintroduced India to the fold in the report as well. Excerpts:

TT BU R E AU

Gold rush drives LCCs in India

% Growth 2011 2012 2013

Real GDP Growth 7.0 6.1 6.5

Arrivals, Trips 10.4 10.1 5.9

Incoming Tourist Receipts 9.1 10.2 10.7 Value US$

Air Transport Value US$ 10.4 18.5 18.6

Hotels Value US$ -3.3 4.3 4.8

Travel Retail Value US$ -0.9 6.8 7.7Source: Euromonitor International

India Overview

WTM Global Trends Report 2012

While travel between India and the Middle Easthas long been popular, the recent surge of low-cost flight options has opened up new travelopportunities for gold fans.

Indian travellers make the most of the bargainsavailable at gold souks across the Gulf, offeringbetter quality gold with more appealing intricatedesigns.

Indians buy gold for wedding gifts and at annualtraditional gold buying festivals such as AkshayaTritiya and Dhanteras, but also as an investment.

Low-cost carriers operating between the Gulfand India have helped cement this travel trendby providing cheap fares for tourists and Non-Resident Indians (NRI) alike.

India - Gold rush on low cost

Hotels are expected to record strong growth inAsia of 7% CAGR over 2012-2016, led byVietnam at 15% CAGR, due to rising interna-tional and domestic visitors.

There is a significant growth potential presentin the region for luxury branded hotels, espe-cially in China, expected to post hotel salesgrowth of 7% CAGR from 2012 to 2016.

The move by luxury brands into hotels hasalready started in Europe and the Middle East,with Armani Hotels in Milan and Dubai, andMissoni Hotels in Edinburgh and Kuwait.

Asia - Driving fast and furious

India: Key Performance Indicators 2011-2013

Asia Hotels Value Sales by Key Country% CAGR (2012-2016)

India has a rich heritage ofBuddhist legacy. There are

several Buddhist destinationsacross India, which areimportant from pilgrimageperspective. There are fourholy places associated withGautam Buddha in India,which are a must visit desti-nation for Buddhists. Thisincludes Bodhgaya, where heattained enlightenment;Sarnath, near Varanasi,where he preached his firstsermon and Kushinagar, nearGorakhpur, where heachieved Mahanirvana.

“There are about 600million Buddhists in the

world. Even if half of themare practising Buddhism andare able and willing to trav-el, India can set a feasibletarget of attracting one percent of this Buddhist popu-lation to attract over 1.5million Buddhist visitorsevery year,” said ArunAnand, Hony. Treasurer,IATO and Vice President,Buddhist Heritage TourismPromotion Council.

“To tap this opportuni-ty which is in line with ouroverall target of attractingone per cent of internationalarrivals in the 12th planperiod, we should have adedicated marketing cam-paign on Buddhism, whichcan be further promoted byour India Tourism offices as a niche segment.Moreover, the events like the recently held international Buddhism

Conclave in Varanasi shouldbe held annually. We shouldget more Buddhist foreigntour operators to India tofurther boost the growingBuddhist pilgrimage marketin India,” he added.

Anand also laid empha-sis on the development of tourist related infrastruc-ture such as enhanced connectivity and creatingother convenient touristtransportation options. “The

Railways here can play a keyrole. The IRCTC shouldrealise that many Indian touroperators shy away from pur-chasing their Buddhismrelated Mahaparinirvan andother services from its GSA.

There should be anothercompetitive window along-side the GSA route, to conduct mutual beneficialbusiness and attract moreBuddhist visitors to India,”he added.

To tap the opportunity of attracting said Buddhists which is in line with our overall target under the 12th five YearPlan Period, there is a need of a dedicated marketing campaign on Buddhism. Also we should ensure that the eventslike the International Buddhism Conclave which was organised recently in Varanasi are held annually.

‘India can attract 1.5 million Buddhists’

TT BU R E AU

We should havea dedicatedmarketingcampaign onBuddhism, whichcan be furtherpromoted by ourIndia Tourismoffices

Arun AnandHony. Treasurer IATO and Vice PresidentBuddhist Heritage Tourism Promotion Council

India has a rich heritage ofBuddhist legacy, which isover 2,500 years old. Thereare several Buddhistdestinations across India

Buddhist Trail

NEWS D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2 TRAVTALK 5

STATES

The Golden Chariot hasbeen recording a steady

increase in its occupancy lev-els in the last four years. From22 per cent in its first year ofoperation, the last season sawthe luxury trainmanage nearly 40per cent occupancydespite several tripsgetting cancelled.Considering that aluxury product is catered to avery niche audience unlike amass product and that it willtake a while for it to get itsdue attention and the trust itdeserves, this is a step-by-step movement towards awider acceptance of the prod-

uct. Also, The Golden Chariothas been the only luxury trainamong 5 others in India torecord a growth in occupancy.

For the year ahead andthe years to come, certainpositive developments arepromising to take the luxurytrain forward in terms of pop-ularity, acceptance and ulti-mately the required numberof passengers to help it breakeven sooner than expected.

As per CD Dyavaiah,Managing Director, KSTDC,“Add all these positive vibes,the Indian Railways have alsotaken a huge step favouringThe Golden Chariot by agree-ing to slash Haulage Fee (oneof the biggest costs of opera-

tion) for a period of threeyears. This, along withexpected increase in occupan-cy levels, is expected to seethe luxury train break-evenand possibly start makingprofits by the end of 2013-14or early 2014-15.”

Lately, TheGolden Chariot cel-ebrated its 100th

trip during theNovember 12-19,2012 journey cov-

ering Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,Puducherry and Kerala. Thistrip is a major milestone forthe Golden Chariot &Karnataka Tourism, as thisprestigious project has beenable to successfully establish

a world-class tourism infra-structure project fromKarnataka and has also boost-ed the real potential of theState and South India.

The 100th trip had 86 of88 possible passengers trav-elling on-board, making it a100 per cent sell-out tripwith all the cabins fullybooked by International aswell as Domestic tourists(Lions Club members).

Further, the Great RailJourneys, a UK-based luxurytour operator has confirmedgroup bookings from January2013 for 6 trips with 35-40passengers. Also, rightthrough the end of the cur-rent season, bookings of

nearly 50 per cent of the lux-ury train capacity has alreadybeen received, with the oddtrip showing a dip.

A group of The StanfordUniversity Professors hasalready travelled on-board TheGolden Chariot this season andhave promised more such tripsin the coming months. Severalother American academicianshave already travelled on-board and are repeatedly send-ing small groups. At the recentWorld Travel Market inLondon, a British TourOperator even remarked toparticipating officials thatwithout doubt, The GoldenChariot is among the best inthe world in terms of servicestandards and itinerary vari-ety. This marks the growinginterest and wider acceptancefor the luxury train.

Several InternationalSchools, Universities,Corporate Companies, bothDomestic and Internationalare also looking for group bookings on The Golden Chariot.

The Golden Chariot has been witnessing a steady risein occupancy and also celebrated its 100th trip onNovember 12-19, 2012 journey covering Karnataka,Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala.

From 22% to 40%

TT BU R E AU

“Karnataka is a world-class destination and we areworking on that vision toattract more number ofinternational and domesticvisitors. Literally speaking,Karnataka offers ‘one statemany worlds’, as it offer avariety of travel productsincluding heritage, pristinecoastline, wildlife and theGolden Chariot luxury train,to name a few. The trainoffers an opportunity to seeevery destination in thecomforts of five-star facili-

ties. Without the traveltrade, we can’t attain ourobjectives. They need to beapplauded on the great jobthey are doing of makingboth ends meet.

On one side, theycoordinate with theGovernment to help facili-tate infrastructure and onthe other hand, they helpget tourists into the coun-try. They are the catalystand link.” G Sathyavathi,Director, Department ofTourism, Karnataka

CELEBRATING

The Golden Chariot

Travel trade and luxury trains

Karnataka is aworld-classdestination andwe are workingon that vision toattract morenumber ofinternationaland domesticvisitors

G SathyavathiDirectorDepartment of Tourism Karnataka

Indian Railways have taken a hugestep favouring The Golden Chariot byagreeing to slash Haulage Fee (one ofthe biggest costs of operation)

CD Dyavaiah Managing Director, KSTDC

TRIPS

The Golden Chariot celebratedits 100th trip during theNovember 12-19, 2012

The luxury train managed togain 40% from 22% in its firstyear of operation

Achievements

In a competitive businessenvironment, large players

enjoy distinct advantage dueto the massive volumes theydrive. But regulatory mecha-nism and watchdogs shouldensure that the marketshould not get dominated byonly a few large players. Asper, Guldeep Singh Sahni,

President, OTOAI, such apeculiar situation had led tothe fall of one of the top five,immensely popular traveldestinations, in Far East trav-el in India.

“One among the top FarEast destinations for Indianshas recently seen a major fallin terms of its popularityamong travel trade, whichhas now resulted in loss ofvisitor arrivals. Its fall startedwhen it first went out ofbounds from the small andmedium-sized travel agentsin the past few years. Thesmall and medium playershad stopped selling it as thelarge players had entered into

exclusive pre-purchasearrangements with the lead-ing airlines and hotels in thisregion such that their priceand margin became unsus-tainable,” said Sahni.

“Here the role ofNational Tourism Boards

(NTO) becomes very impor-tant. Unfortunately, the NTOof the said destination didn’tintervene to ensure holisticgrowth participation of allkinds of agents and wereapparently happy with thegrowth being generated bythe handful of large opera-

tors. As these large operatorsshifted their focus on alter-native destination, the desti-nation that once was a house-hold, has now lost its ground.Hence, NTOs should play therole of a facilitator for all setsof agents and also act as aregulator, if the large players

tend to create monopoly ofsorts,” he added.

The Outbound TourOperators Association ofIndia (OTOAI) has alwaysbeen on the forefront to pro-tect the interests of outboundtour operators. It had recently

conducted its 2nd membersmeet in New Delhi, whichwas attended in large num-bers by its members. Theassociation is also striving tobuild a strong legal and polit-ical cause to address theapparent anomalies in thenew service tax regime.

National Tourism Offices (NTOs) should play the role of a facilitator for all set of agents and should also act asa regulator, if the large players tend to create monopoly of sorts.

‘NTOs should act as a watchdog’TT BU R E AU

ASSOCIATIONS D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2 TRAVTALK 7

One among thetop Far Eastdestinations forIndians hasrecently seen amajor fall in termsof its popularityamong traveltrade, which nowhas resulted in lossof visitor arrivals

Guldeep Singh Sahni PresidentOTOAI

NTOs should play the role of afacilitator for all sets of agentsand also act as a regulator, if thelarge players tend to createmonopoly of sorts

Regulatory mechanism andwatchdogs should ensure thatthe market should not getdominated by only a few large players

List to do for NTOs

AVIATION

After missing multipledeadlines for the opening

up for operations, the NetajiSubhash Chandra BoseInternational Airport, Kolkata(originally known as Dum DumAirport) is all set to open onJanuary 23, 2013. However,the transition of airlines to this

new terminal is expected, to becompleted by March 2013.Started in 2008, the moderni-sation of this airport (construc-tion of a new terminal building)was aimed at smooth manage-ment of the increasing passen-ger traffic by integrating bothdomestic and internationalpassenger operations. Spreadover 2,510,000 sq ft area, theterminal is expected to handle25 million passengers a year by2015-16. With this capacity,the airport aims at acting as atransit hub as it is a major cen-tre for flights to North EastIndia, Bangladesh and SouthEast Asia. Kolkata Airport alsogets a fair amount of flightsfrom destinations such asThailand and Singapore.

Divulging furtherdetails, on the opening of thenew terminal building atNetaji Subhash Chandra Bose

International Airport, VPAgrawal, Chairman, AirportsAuthority of India (AAI) said,

“With an investmentof ` 2,325 crore, forthe modernisation ofthe Kolkata Airport,we have increasedthe passenger capacity, deployedmodern technologyfor smooth and easytransfers and movement of passengers and aircraft at the airport.

Kolkata is the economiccapital of the Eastern part ofIndia and we expect a

tremendous growth in air-craft movement in the com-ing years. This is reflectedwith the increased number ofpassengers that the KolkataAirport is processing eachyear, up half a million on2008 to 7.6 million passen-gers in 2009. The airport haswitnessed a 6.4 per centgrowth in international trafficand 21.4 per cent growth in

domestic traffic over the past5 years. Current projectionssuggest Kolkata Airport willhandle 25 mppa (million pas-sengers per annum) in 2015-16.” According to Agrawal,the prospects of having a hubat Kolkata Airport becamebrighter after the city got astate-of-the-art integratedterminal building.

“Kolkata’s current inter-national and domestic termi-nals will close once the inte-grated terminal opens.However, the internationalterminal might still beutilised for future Hajj serv-ices and the domestic termi-nal could be used by regionalairlines,” he furtherinformed. A proposal of continuing low-cost carrier

operations from the existingdomestic terminal has beenshelved due to the need of afully-utilised new integratedterminal. The new terminalhas attracted the interest of airlines that are consider-ing to extend their operationsto Kolkata including Malaysia Airlines, XiamenAirlines, Turkish Airlines and flydubai.

The Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport,Kolkata to open on Jan 23, 2013 will act as a transit hub forflights to North East India, Bangladesh and South East Asia.

Here is a new transit hub

AN I TA JA I N

VP AgrawalChairmanAirports Authority of India

OTOAI steals the show

A large number of OTOAI members participated in the Scandinavian Seminar, which took place at Sheraton, NewDelhi, Saket on October 30, 2012. Flemming Bruhn, Director, VisitDenmark, along with some of the key Scandinavianpartners, were present at the event, which offered an excellent networking and exchange opportunity.

What the modern NSCBIA hasThe airport contains six levels and two undergroundparking levels

128 Check-in counters based on CUTE (Common UserTerminal Equipment) technology

78 Immigration counters and twelve customs counters

30 Conveyor belts

18 Aerobridges

57 Remote parking bays will be available

The Istanbul-based TurkishAirlines has sought

permission from the CivilAviation Ministry in India toexpand the bilateral limits tofacilitate it for enhancing its

flight frequency betweenTurkey and India. This willallow the airline to increasefrequency of inbound andoutbound flights to India.Currently, Turkish Airlineshas daily ex-Delhi and ex-Mumbai services from India.

“India is a very impor-tant market for us. Havingstarted our operations a fewyears ago in India, we havegot a phenomenal responseas most of our flights are fullybooked. We are now keen onexpanding our operationsfrom other Indian cities likeChennai, Hyderabad, Kolkataand Bengaluru,” saysMehmet Akay, TurkishAirlines, General Manager,Western & Southern India. A

major chunk of the Indian pas-sengers on-board the airlinesare transit passengers toEurope. “Istanbul, Turkey'scapital, has become the pre-ferred transit point betweenAsia and Europe and mostIndians use our flights to con-

nect to Europe as we are closeto it and have very good con-nections to most Europeancities,” admits Akay.

The airline also hopesthat by increasing moreflights from India, Turkey toowill soon be a preferred des-

tination among Indians.“Indians love to travel andwe want to showcase ourcountry to them. In 2011, wereceived 74,000 visitors fromIndia. In 2012, from Januaryto September, the arrivalsfrom India reached 66,700.

By having more flights fromIndia, we hope to have a 20%growth in the future,” saysOzgur Ayturk, Culture andTourism Counsellor, TurkishEmbassy.Turkish Airline ispresently the world’s fifthlargest airline and has

recently added 200th aircraftto its fleet. The Airlineswhich won the Skytraxaward for 'Best AirlineEurope' covers 205 cities in90 countries. It aims at beingthe world’s largest airlinenetwork by 2023.

Turkey’s flag carrier and Europe’s third largest passenger carrier, Turkish Airlines is in talks with the Indiangovernment over its plans to expand operations from more cities in India.

More Indian cities on Turkish radarDE N CY MAT H E W

AVIATION D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2 TRAVTALK 9

We are keen onexpanding ouroperations fromother Indian cities

Mehmet AkayTurkish Airlines General Manager, Western & Southern India

By having moreflights from India,we hope to havea 20% growth in future

Ozgur AyturkCulture and Tourism Counsellor Turkish Embassy

SUCCESS STORY1 0 TRAVTALK D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2

Define Indian aviation?

Indian Aviation industry ismessed up at this time.

Please elaborate...

The aviation sector is badlyinjured because of the heavytaxes and fuel cost which aremaking air travel prohibitive.The train traveller has goneback to train and our markethas shrunk. There is no con-cept of low cost but just lowfare. So, if you want to run aprofitable airline than I’mafraid today’s cost structuredoes not warrant a train trav-eller to move to air travel.

What can an airline do to become profitable?The most important thing foran airline is the way of oper-ating their business. Eachairline has to decide, if itwants to carry less number

of passengers and become aprofitable airline or have fullseats and be a losing airline.This is one of the toughestperiod in Indian aviation andeach airline is losing out onpassengers, revenues andprofits. There is a need to bemore disciplined in terms ofpricing, bring in route ratio-nalisation, cut on routes withno profits and manage thecost in a better way.

Talking about routerationalisation, the metroroutes in India are saturatedas the industry seat factor isabout 68-70 per cent onmetro routes. Thus, we areflying 30 per cent empty air-crafts so where is the need toadd more capacity. Instead,we should look at secondarymarkets which are growingand makes economic sensefor our business. As JetAirways, we have curtailedour domestic expansion and

are focussing more on inter-national operations, especial-ly on Gulf routes. Thus, air-lines should fly on routeswhich are profitable andmakes economic sense totheir operating model, rev-enues and profits.

To become a long-termplayer in the market...Our focus is on becoming anetwork carrier especially inthe ASEAN region. We alwaysworked with our interline part-ners and offered destinationsbeyond our direct points.However, with more Indiansexploring the unusual destina-tions in the regional market,there is a need to market ourinterline partners connectingdestinations. For example,there is a tremendous increasefrom India to destinations likeKoh Samui, Phuket, Krabi,Chiang Mai, etc. Though we flyto only Bangkok, we have put

in some competitive faresdirectly to these destinationsin association with our inter-line and network partners. Wewant to promote Jet Airwayswhich goes beyond the usualdestinations and with increas-ing competition from IndianLCCs on international front,it’s time for us to find out newmarkets like Thailand,Singapore, China, Japan,Australia, Korea, Vietnam, etc.

On Jet Airways andJetKonnect models...

In India, LCCs mainly fill-in by offering low fares till 10-15 days prior to departure andshoots up the fares after thattill departure date. This way,there is no consistency in pric-ing and no assurance aboutearning profits on bottom-line.On the other land, forJetKonnect, we have 10-12classes and we gradually fill inthose seats with calculative

pricing struc-ture. We look atearning revenueper flight instead of just look-ing at seat loads. Also, we haveadded minimum eight premi-um seats on all JetKonnectflights which add up to ourbottom-line.

There is also a marketand gap for growth for JetAirways’ full service carriermodel as not all travellersbook in advance, especiallyfrom the corporate segment.Also, the service standardsmatter for a legacy carrier tomaintain its brand loyaltyamong domestic and inter-national passengers.

We are a carrier that is going to be a long-termserious player of the country, who wants to be anetwork player, who wantsto further expand its globalnetwork on profitable

routes and become one ofthe top five carriers in theworld and is workingtowards that goal.

Jet Airways is acting as a serious player in the Indian aviation market. It is in the process ofbecoming a strong network player, a true global carrier and will soon be among the top fiveglobal airlines, says Sonu Kripalani, Vice President, Passenger Sales – India, Jet Airways.

Jet Airways: Selling beyond India

Sonu KripalaniVice President, Passenger Sales – India, Jet Airways

LEADERS TALK

AN I TA JA I N

This is a toughperiod in the Indianaviation. Each airline is losing outon passengers,revenues and profits.There is a need to bemore disciplined inpricing and managecosts in a better way

AVIATION

Christopher Fordyce,Regional Commercial

Manager, British Airways,South Asia, said, “We are

delighted to announce further growth inHyderabad and Chennai.Come summer, our cus-tomers will be able to enjoyenhanced flight frequency aswell as our unmatched on board services.”

‘’We alwayskeep customers atthe heart of alldecision makingand try to providewhat they wantfrom us. We havewitnessedtremendous cus-tomer responseand increase indemand from Hyderabad andChennai in the last couple ofyears. To cater to this grow-ing demand, we are pleasedto offer enhanced flight fre-quency to all our customersfrom these two cities.

India continues tobe one of the fastestgrowing markets forBritish Airways andwe are proud to beparticipating as wellas contributing toIndia’s tremendousgrowth story,’’ hefurther added.

British Airways hasalso announced an attractivediscount offer, exclusivelyfor its Hyderabad andChennai customers flying to London. Customers will be able to enjoy a fantastic 25% discount on all Club World tickets booked beforeFriday, November 23, 2012to London. The travel will bevalid until December 15,2012. British Airways has announced a GBP5 billion investment over the next five years in aircraft, product, service and catering enhancementsto improve the overall customer experience.

British Airways has announced that it will be expandingits route network from Hyderabad and Chennai from summer 2013 to six flights per week from five flights per week as per the current schedule.

BA increases flight frequency

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Christopher FordyceRegional Commercial ManagerBritish Airways, South Asia

Internet Moguls, a com-plete digital marketing solu-tions provider and TrustYou,an online reputation man-agement market leader forthe hospitality industryannounced a strategic part-nership to tap hotels andother hospitality-relatedcompanies.

This alliance will trans-late into a more completedigital marketing solution asthe services of both organi-sations will work in tandemin a way that is seamless toits clients. Those workingwith TrustYou and InternetMoguls will enjoy the added benefit of preferredpricing when collaboratingwith the two companiessimultaneously.

“It’s like a natural pro-gression for us to enhanceour set of digital solutionstar rated and non-starrated hospitality partners.

This global partner-ship will allow hotels to geta complete solution in termsof a leading ReputationManagement tool as well asa premier implementationagency in Internet Moguls.

We are happy to workwith such a detailed analy-sis tool, like they say ‘Data

is the new oil’. This tool willhelp us increase revenues for

many of our clients across the world,” said Avijit Arya, Chief Mogul(CEO), Internet Moguls.

Expressing similar views,Rajat Malhotra, Director –Sales, Asia, TrustYou, said,“We are thrilled to cometogether with a companysuch as Internet Moguls thatshares our passion for digital excellence in the hospitality industry. It is anatural synergy for us tobring our services togetherin an integrated way that will benefit the hotels in India.”

Going forward,TrustYou and InternetMoguls will attend industryevents together and exhibittogether at key conferences.

They also plan to con-duct workshops for hote-liers on a variety of topics,ranging from how toincrease the volume ofhotel reviews, to how torespond to online reviewsalong with a 360 degreeview on digital marketing,in an effort to help this mar-ket stay on the cutting edgeof its competition aroundthe world.

Providing ourservices in anintegrated way,will benefit thehotels in India

This globalpartnership willallow hotels to get a completesolution

Avijit AryaChief Mogul (CEO) Internet Moguls

Rajat MalhotraDirectorSales, Asia

Internet Moguls & TrustYou join hands

ASSOCIATIONS

The regional chapter ofFederation of Hotel &

Restaurant Associations ofIndia (FHRAI), the Hotel &Restaurant Association ofNorthern India (HRANI) is cur-rently the largest regionalchapter of FHRAI. Elaboratingon the initiatives of the asso-ciation, Oberoi reveals,

“The association, overthe past few years, hasbeen working on revitalising the regional chapter in allthe nine memberstates. As a result,HRANI is the largestregional chapter ofFHRAI, in terms ofmembership base.”

The association hasalmost 1,500 members as ofnow. It has added at least 300new members in the last twoyears. “Going forward, in thenext two years, the associa-tion is targetting to increasethe membership by another20 per cent. It will alsoupdate the membership data

by removing the defaultersand non-serious members inthe last couple of years,” thenewly elected Presidentstates.

Addressing concerns ofthe full infrastructure statusfor the hotel industry, heopines, “The hospitality indus-try has been demanding infra-structure status for a while

now. With large sunk costs andlong gestation periods, theindustry is highly capital inten-sive. The steady increase inborrowing costs over the pastfew years is not only under-mining the financial viabilityof individual projects acrossthe country but is also cloud-

ing the investment horizon forthe entire sector.”

According to Oberoi, theannouncement in the lastbudget was a half-hearted one.“The list of infrastructure statushas only included ‘three-star orhigher category classifiedhotels located outside citieswith population of more thanone million’. This unreasonablerestriction also limits theintended beneficial impact ofthis policy initiative by exclud-ing a majority of our industryfrom within its purview. Theassociation will continue to pur-sue the infrastructure issuewith the government in thecoming budget as well,” helaments. Another roadblock inthe industry is the presence ofmultiple taxes. Thus, the needof the hour is a rational taxstructure regime, he adds.

A long-term plan for theassociation to work on is alsoon the anvil. “The plan whichhas been compiled by theWorking Group of HRANI willbe published after taking sug-gestions from the members ofthe association. We have cir-culated the bullet points of thepaper to our members and areawaiting their recommenda-tions,” he points out.

In a tete-a-tete with , Garish Oberoi, the newPresident of Hotel & Restaurant Association ofNorthern India (HRANI) chalks out strategies of theassociation for next two years.

300 new members in 2 years

ME G H A PAU L

Garish OberoiPresidentHRANI and Vice President, FHRAI

Scotland adds 20 Indian specialists

VisitScotland bestowed Specialist Councillors on Tourism in Scotland- certificates to 20 new Indian Scots agents inNew Delhi, which was followed up by a networking event hosted by the Scottish Government, and Scottish DevelopmentInternational at the British High Commissioner’s Residence. Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and ExternalAffairs, Scotland graced both the events among other dignitaries.

TECHNOLOGY D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2 TRAVTALK 1 5

Travel agents are awarethat the corporate clients

are always short of time,while they want to have plen-ty of travel options that suittheir requirements and fit inthe corporate travel policy oftheir respective companies.Here, Zillious Solution offers technological solutionsthat enable to meet allunique requirements of such corporate clients.

“We in a short period ofless than three years of hav-ing started our operations inDelhi had been successful indelivering online solutions forall e-commerce verticals(B2B, B2B2B, B2C and B2E (corporate/self bookingtool) to the travel trade community.

We specialise in theB2E vertical and provideCorporate/SelfBooking Tool solutions to travelagents, who in turnprovide the SelfBooking Engine totheir corporateclients,”

said the Director of Sales.“The corporate self bookingtool reduces the entireprocess time, beginning fromthe approval process to thetime taken, for issuance of aticket. The system is alsocapable of reducing time and effort made by travel

agencies to submit certainspecific accounting reports,which are commonlyrequired by corporate hous-es,” Balakrishnan added.

“2012 has been good forus as an organisation. Wehave had mid-sized and

large-sized TMCs talking to us for providing theCorporate/Self booking tool. Interms of segments rolled, wehave been having a steadygrowth of over 20 per cent(YoY) and expect it grow in theyears to come,” he says.

Further, after acquiringlarge TMCs in India, the com-pany is keen to enter theMiddle East market followedby Singapore and Hong Kong, while growing theIndian business. According to Balakrishnan, travel

agencies should look at tech-nology as an investment andnot as an expense.

“The corporate travellerdoes not have the time andpatience to wait for optionsto be provided by TMC tocomplete his booking. The

corporate clients always wantthe TMC to display all their accounts on the web.For this to happen, theagency has to move into thee-commerce vertical, whereour solution serves reallyeffectively,” he stated.

With plans afloat to venture into Middle East market followed by Singapore and Hong Kong, B Rajan, Director- Sales, Zillious Solutions is determined to tap the huge potential in India.

Win corporate clients with Zilious TT BU R E AU

B Rajan Director - SalesZillious Solutions

Zillious Solution offerstechnological solutionsthat enable to meet allunique requirements ofsuch corporate clients

After acquiring large TMCsin India, the company iskeen to enter the MiddleEast market followed bySingapore and HongKong, while growing theIndian business

Quick Solutions

ANALYSIS1 6 TRAVTALK D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2

With the Centre formallynotifying fresh guide-

lines on tiger conservation,the Supreme Court has nowcleared the decks for resump-tion of tourism activities in theareas reserved for the tiger. ABench of justices AK Patnaikand Swatanter Kumar gavethe green signal for resump-tion of tourism activities,modifying its July 24 order bywhich it had earlier halted alltourism-related activities intiger reserve areas.

For the tourism industrythat had earlier suffered amajor setback, this directivefrom the SC comes as a bigrelief. Affected by revenue lossdue to the uncertainty sur-rounding the ban on WildlifeTourism since July this year,the industry is now lookingforward to a busier season.

“It is now time to getback to work, to ensure thatrevenues that flow throughpark fees back into conser-vation and communitiesstart flowing again, thatlivelihoods are restored and

legitimate busi-nesses are allowed to contin-ue to show India’s very bestnatural heritage to its citi-zens,” Vishal Singh,Director, TOFT India pointsout. According to Singh, thebreather is just a mixedblessing.

“The SC has surelylifted the ban. But

due to the stricterforest guidelines

now, the number ofjeeps getting into thecore areas has been

reduced. This in turnimplies that lesser tourist

can go inside thecore areas. Thisonly hurts themorale of thetour operators inthe longer run,”he revealed.

“Due to ambiguousrules, each state is interpret-ing the ban-lift in its own wayand thus, business is affectedin some states while it isbusiness as usual in the others. The state that has received a major setback is Madhya Pradesh.Ranthambore has not beenhit hard despite of stricterforest guidelines by theRajasthan government,” heclaims. “Tour operators canstill diversify business andgarner revenues from alter-nate sources. However, thelodge owners are still at stakeand will have to work out anew strategy to cope up withthe new rules,” he adds.

Reiterating the concernof lodge and hotel owners inthe forest reserves,

Akanksha Garg Dewan,Director, Waxpol Hotels &Resorts laments, “The overallpicture of the WildlifeTourism industry seems bad.We have certainly seen a dropin business. As the SC verdictcame in late, we have wit-nessed group cancellations.This has affected our bottom-line.” For example – in Pench,earlier while 102 jeeps (60 inthe morning and 42 in theevening) were allowed perday inside the core areas,now it has been halved to

almost 50 jeeps. With noguaranteed safaris, thetourists have become appre-hensive about coming towildlife parks, she adds.

Some hospitality com-panies affected by the ban are

back on track to promotetheir packages for the upcom-ing winter season. Taj Safaris,the unit within the Taj Groupof hotels that looks afteradventures in the wildlife cir-cuit, is offering promotionalpackages in four of its prop-erties - Kanha, Panna, Penchand Bandhavgarh NationalParks in Madhya Pradesh.

As a bulk of inboundtourist comes to India for itswildlife, the segment haswitnessed a setback. Sunil

C. Gupta, Chairman - UttarPradesh Chapter, IATO andDirector, Travel Bureaufeels, “We have seen a 20per cent drop in business forthe month of October and November at our company. Inbound needs

a larger materialisation period. They make bookingfive-six months in advance.So that part of the businesshas certainly taken a hit.Thus, diversifying our busi-ness and looking at alterna-tive tourism segmentsbecomes detrimental for thesuccess of the company. Weare suggesting inboundtourists to choose othernature-related activities as opposed to wildlife.”However, the good news isdomestic tourists in India are ever-increasingand this chunk of tourists do only last minute bookings. This will help offset the challenges theindustry is facing today, he says looking at the positive side.

Highlights SubhashVerma, President, ADTOI,“We welcome the lifting ofthe ban. This will surelyfacilitate larger number ofdomestic tourists in the for-est areas. Also, earlier thenotion was that it was onlythe inbound tourists whowere interested in wildlife.However, mid-end andhigh-end domestic travellersare also extremely enthusi-astic. With the inboundbeing hit, we need to relymore on these domestictravellers. It is too early to give out numbers but this segment will surely pick up soon.”

It came as a breather when the Supreme Court gave the green signal for the resumption of tourism activities inthe core tiger areas. While inbound tourism has been hit, the industry is expecting the domestic travel to pick up.

Post tiger ban lift, industry remains cautious

ME G H A PAU L

We have seena drop in ourbusiness. Asthe SC verdictcame in late,we witnessedgroupcancellationsthat affectedour bottomline

The SC hassurely lifted theban but due tothe strict forestguidelines, thenumber ofjeeps gettinginto the coreareas has beenreduced

Vishal SinghDirectorTOFT India

Akanksha Garg DewanDirectorWaxpol Hotels & Resorts

We welcomethe lifting ofthe ban. Thiswill surelyfacilitatelargernumber ofdomestictourists in theforest areas

We aresuggestinginboundtourists tochoose other nature-relatedactivities asopposed towildlife

Sunil C. GuptaChairman - Uttar Pradesh ChapterIATO

Subhash VermaPresidentADTOI

For the tourism industry thathad earlier suffered a majorsetback, this directive from theSC comes as a big relief

Affected by revenue loss dueto the uncertainty surroundingthe ban on Wildlife Tourismsince July this year, theindustry is now lookingforward to a busier season

Finally a big relief

HOTELS

Crowne Plaza Today NewDelhi Okhla is riding high

with good quarter results thisyear. According to Barun Jolly,General Manager, CrownePlaza Today New Delhi Okhla,the growth in revenues till

October has increased by 18per cent compared to the sameperiod last year.

In a new move to iden-tify and retain HR, the hotel

has now recently partneredwith Banarsidas ChandiwalaInstitute of HotelManagement & CateringTechnology to provide hospi-tality training and job oppor-tunities to the aspiring hos-pitality professionals. “TheIHG Academy will identify

home-grown talent to joinour teams, support localindustry and give our col-leagues around the world theopportunity to get involvedand inspired,” says the GM.

The motto is two-fold,feels Jolly. Firstly, it will help increase the brand visbility of the IHG brand andthe hotel property. Secondly,as a CSR initiative by the hotel, it will make employment sustainable forthe local community throughthis new programme.

“The IHG Academyis a real win-win forthe community andthe organisation asit allows us to leverage the hotel’sresources and ourpeople to providereal opportunities to local people.

In turn, we will create askilled talent pipeline for ourhotels which will translate into a better guest experience,”he adds.

Crowne Plaza Today New Delhi Okhla in association withBanarsidas Chandiwala Institute will identify home-growntalent to join the team and support local industry.

IHG eyes new talent pool

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In what comes as a muchrequired push to some of the

crucial sectors, the ReserveBank of India (RBI) has con-ferred infrastructure status tothree-star hotels. This move isexpected to give an impetus tothe business of Uttarakhand-based Leisure Hotels. SaysVibhas Prasad, Director,Leisure Hotels, “This recentdevelopment will certainlygive a fillip to our portfolio asmost of our properties fall inthe same category.”

The group is extremelybullish on the coming year.The hotel-owning, operatingand management company istargetting four major seg-ments in a big way. The hotelplans to cash in on pilgrimagetourism. Speaking about thecompany’s focus on the NorthIndian pilgrimage market,Prasad feels,

“We are constantlyfocussing on the northern market. Thegroup is catering to theneeds of the tourists by way of luxuryaccommodations. Overthe last ten years, thepilgrimage segmentthis year has done themaximum business.”

Though the segmentstill contributes to just five-six per cent business ofthe group, Prasad sees more growth in the sector inthe near future. “We areconsolidating our inventoryin the segment. LeisureHotels will open a 100-keyproperty in Rishikesh byend-2013,” he adds.According to him, theChardham segment is unor-ganised. The chain plans to

tie up with a big number oftravel agents to promotethis segment.

The Corbett market hasslowed down a bit, he reveals.“Out of our existing 22 hotels,three are in the Corbett area. With immense pressureon price and occupancy, thisbusiness has been affected,”he laments.

Leisure hotel management feels that the pilgrimage segmentwill pick up in the near future. However, presently, the hotelonly sees 5% of its business from this segment.

‘Chardham is disorganised’

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Vibhas PrasadDirectorLeisure Hotels

SpiceJet starts Cochin-Male serviceSpiceJet will expand its

international operations toMaldives with daily directCochin-Male service. Theflight on this route willcommence from 29th

November. The aircraft thatwill be used for this routewill be Dash 8-Q400.Earlier direct flights to Malewere only from Trivandrum.The proposed flight Cochin

– Male will depart fromCochin at 12.50 and reachMale at 14.10. In the returnleg, the flight will departfrom Male at 14:45 andreach Cochin at 17:05

Kunal Soon, Quality & Training Manager, Barun Jolly, GM, Crowne Plaza Today NewDelhi Okhla and Dr. Bhuwan Mohan – Secretary Banarsidas Chandiwala Trust

right model for an emergingmarket like India. The coststructure shouldn’t be thelowest in the world but itshould be the lowest in theoperating market.”

Accepted. But how canLCCs lower their cost in amarket where they are notdifferentiated for payingtaxes by airport operators andstate governments? Notwhen both LCC and full serv-ice carriers are paying thesame navigational fee at theairports. Also, is it reallyimportant to tweak the air-fares, squeeze your profitmargins to gain the marketshare?

Need for price discipline

Deepak Barara,Commercial Director andBoard Member, Air India said,“As young carriers grow insize and business, they facelegacy carrier issues in India.The cost structure of the avi-ation sector is not making it

economically viable for air-lines to offer lower fares inthe market. Legacy carriersare struggling to get a highermarket share in India as LCCsare now holding the biggestpie. For legacy carriers, finan-cial and economic viability is

dependent on long-haulroutes i.e. internationalroutes. This is because ininternational aviation space,every airline has price disci-pline which lowers the com-petition and improves servicestandards, resulting in betterloads and profitability.”

Empty Planes? It’s acrime!

Ok. So now, if airlines inIndia follow price discipline,what is the next step? Howcan airlines focus on increas-ing average yields and earnbetter profits, especiallywhen airlines (both LCC andlegacy) are losing loads dueto their increasing operatingcost, rising airport taxesresulting in high air travelprices. According to CaptainGR Gopinath, Chairman,

Deccan Charters; there is aneed to stimulate the marketwith attractive fares and fillthe aircraft. “But fill the planeand make profits, not losses,”warns Gopinath. He adds,“Airline operators should doa proper revenue manage-

ment and fill the plane as it’sa crime to fly empty aircraftin Indian skies.” Adding fur-ther, Adel Ali, CEO, AirArabia said, “If you are in aLCC model business, 70 percent is not good enough. Tobe profitable, you need to beabove 80-85 per cent in loadson every aircraft and route.Airlines in India fly by reduc-ing pricing and pinching theirprofits instead of fightingwith the system to reducetheir operational cost.” Hesuggested that Indian carri-ers should focus on ancillaryrevenues and add-ons to earnthat ‘extra’ revenue. Forinstance, F&B is the biggestcontributor for ancillary rev-enue for AirAsia while insur-ance and extra baggage arethe emerging revenue sourcefor the airline.

‘Swing’ capacity The only reason Jet

Airways launched its low costmodel – JetKonnect, was forthe ‘survival’ of the airline,informed Sudheer Raghavan,CCO, Jet Airways. He said,“Aviation industry’s regulatory

framework, tax regime andcost structure needs to changein-perspective to becomeeconomy enabler. India is oneof the most expensive aviationmarkets to operate in. To man-age our load factors, we‘swing’ our capacity by shiftingthe loads to JetKonnect in offseason (during low demand)and to Jet Airways in peak sea-son as there is more demand.We have brought down ouroperating cost by 25 per centin last three years and are taking significant measures to do better.”

The ‘Trust’ factorAccording to

Raghavan, airlines need tolearn to trust each other andunite to fight for a common

COVER STORY

Airlines should unite to fightContd. from page 1

In India, airline operators are baffled with the operating model.Operate an airline that fits your modeland execute it

Bill FrankeManaging Partner, IndiGo Partners

The focus should be more on reducingthe internal cost, which will reduce theoverall operating cost, resulting inmore profitability in revenue earned

Aditya GhoshPresident, IndiGo

Airline operators should do a proper revenue management and fill the plane as it’s a crime to fly empty aircraft

Captain GopinathChairman, Deccan Charters

If you are in a LCC model business, 70%is not good enough. To be profitable,you need have above 80-85 per centload on every aircraft and route

BIGWIGSTalk

Adel AliGroup CEO, Air Arabia

The cost structure of the aviation sector is not making it economicallyviable for airlines to offer lower fares inthe Indian market

Deepak BraraDirector Commercial, Air India

Contd. on page 22

Aviation industry’s regulatory framework,tax regime and cost structure needs tochange in-perspective to becomeeconomy enabler

Sudheer RaghavanChief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways

With growing affluenceand a steadily recover-

ing rupee, more Indian trav-ellers are seeking new desti-nations. This also reflects inthe outbound segment fromIndia that travels to Turkey.

The outbound travellers fromIndia to Turkey are onlyincreasing with the numberstouching 74,000 last year.This was revealed by DrBurak Akcapar, TurkishAmbassador to India duringthe maiden roadshow of theTurkish Hoteliers Federationin Delhi. “This year Turkeyreceived 31.4 million trav-ellers. The objective is toreach 50 million travellers inthe next ten years,” he adds.Betting big on India, the coun-try is aiming to increase theoutbound numbers from India

further. Bollywood movies likeMission Istanbul, Ek Tha Tigerand now the upcoming Race2 have also boosted the out-bound travel from India.Currently, what hinders thetourist numbers is the connec-tivity issue, he feels.

Turkey is now promot-ing itself as a stand-alonedestination, says OzgurAyturk, Culture and TourismCounsellor, Turkey. Though80 per cent of tourist arrivalsfall in the leisure segmentand 20 per cent fall in the

MICE segment, he sees hugepotential for the growth ofTurkey as a wedding, honey-moon and golf destination.

According to OsmanAyik, President, TurkishHoteliers Federation, more

‘wedding tourists’ havestarted visiting the country.“The country was the sixthbiggest destination in theworld, in terms of foreigntourist arrivals in 2011.India is one of the key mar-kets for us and the positive

growth rate of Indians visiting Turkey hasstrengthened my confidencein the market. Of late,Turkey has seen a change inthe profile of its visitors interms of their expectationsand aspirations.”

In association with the Turkish Tourism Board, The Turkish Hoteliers Federation concludedits first time ever, five Indian city roadshows on November 19-23, 2012.

TT BU R E AU

Ozgur AyturkCulture and Tourism CounsellorTurkey

Osman AyikPresidentTurkish Hoteliers Federation

Dr Burak AkcaparTurkish Ambassador to India

Turkey targets golf and wedding market

This was the time that the Turkish HoteliersFederations hostedroadshows in India with adelegation of 12 hoteliers

Mumbai - November 19

Bengaluru - November 20

Chennai - November 21

Hyderabad - November 22

Delhi - November 23

5-City Roadshows

NTO D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2 TRAVTALK 1 9

ANALYSIS2 0 TRAVTALK D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2

All the leading onlineplayers in India believe

that the future of travel willrest on online channels, as

the propensity to purchasetravel online is maturingwith the ever-increasingnumber of travellers inIndia. While an increasingnumber of travellers arebecoming accustomed toshop for domestic and out-bound products in India; amajor challenge is being felton the inbound front. But,all said and done, travellersin the mature markets arefar more internet savvy andaccustomed to online travelpurchase, that makes all theleading OTAs look gleefullyat attracting inbound trav-ellers to India.

“The Indian online trav-el industry has witnessedhuge growth and evolution inthe past few years. The num-bers of Indian travellers haveincreased enormously with aconstant upgradation owing

to the rising disposableincomes, affordable holidayoptions and the aspirationalvalue perceived with travel.Indian travellers are increas-ingly seeking a richer experi-ence and holiday is taken asan opportunity to explore andexperience,” said VikramMalhi, Country Head,Expedia India.

“For foreign tourists,India has also risen as a rela-tively cheaper destination, astheir cost in terms of rupeefell by nearly 22 per cent onback of recent rupee depreci-ation. Naturally, the lowercosts lure travellers towards

India, which even otherwiseis a popular destination. Infact, Expedia in India standsas the largest inbound traveloperator. According to theDepartment of Tourism, closeto 6 million tourists visited

India last year. An increase inthe rate of arrival as com-pared to last year, has alreadybeen spotted and inboundtourism is expected to be ona constant rise through2012,” Malhi added.

Here Rajesh Magow,Co-Founder, COO & CFO,MakeMyTrip adds thatMakeMyTrip has been cater-ing to the US-India NRI mar-ket since 2000. “Our out-bound business makes for10 per cent of our total busi-ness. With increasing num-ber of Indians showinginterest in travel and expe-riencing other cultures, out-

bound has been a big focusof OTAs. The majority ofholidays and hotel bookingson MakeMyTrip are drivenby Indian tourists planningtheir domestic or outboundholidays or from NRIs fortheir annual visits to India,”he added.

But before a rosyinbound picture can be posted for the OTAs, thereare various formidable challenges.

As per ParikshitSawhney, ManagingDirector, ForeRepresentations & Travels,“The total inbound to India is a very small numberwhen compared to the sizeof the country and the vari-ous different sights that thedestination has to offer.”

“It has got to do withmany factors including hoteland transportation, whichmakes India an expensivedestination as compared tocompeting Asian destinationslike Malaysia, Thailand oreven China. Further, OTAsare inherently online andinbound is purely offline. Itrequires customised hands-on service and super interac-tion with the clients, toensure service delivery of the

highest standards on theground. Hence, it is moreabout the nature of OTAs ver-sus the nature and volume ofthe inbound business inIndia,” said Sawhney.

Further, AnkushNijhawan, Co-Founder &Chief Executive Officer,

Travel Boutique Online high-lights risks posed by volatileenvironment of our countrylike strikes, bandhs etc,which make inbound travela very risky affair. “Lack ofinfrastructure is also detri-ment for tourists visitingIndia. OTAs also face stiffcompetition from the largeand existing specialised andfocussed players in theinbound space, who havebeen active in the businessfor the last so many years,”he adds.

Yatra.com here has aninnovative practice, whereinit avoids taking pains ofacquiring clientele in over-seas market, as it finds it eas-ier to service its overseasdestination managementpartners.

“The cost of acquiringlocal customers directly andbuilding a brand in local mar-kets overseas would beexpensive thereby, leading tolower revenue and not a prof-itable business case. We how-ever, through Yatra ExoticRoutes do take care of alltravel requirements for a hostof international agents andoperate as a DMC here. And we have experiencedthat this part of business has more than doubled in the last 3 years,” said PratikMazumder, Head - Marketing& Strategic Alliance,Yatra.com.

The outbound and domestic has been a big hit with online travel agents (OTAs), while most of them seem wary of aggressively pursuing the inbound space. finds out from the brave-hearts of the OTAspace, who are inclined to create a niche in inbound, while taking a close look at the various potent challengesthat need to be addressed.

Inbound remains ‘offline’ for OTAs?

VI V E K SE T H I

The total Inbound toIndia is a very smallnumber whencompared to thesize of the countryand the variousdifferent sights

The no. of Indiantravellers haveincreased dueto the risingdisposable incomes& affordable holiday options

OTAs face stiffcompetition from the existingspecialised andfocussed playersin the inboundspace

Ankush NijhawanCo-Founder & Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Travel Boutique Online

Vikram MalhiCountry HeadExpedia India

Parikshit SawhneyManaging DirectorFore Representations & Travels

With more Indiansshowing interest in travel andexperiencing othercultures, outboundhas been a bigfocus of OTAs

We through YatraExotic Routes takecare of all travelrequirements for a host ofinternationalagents andoperate as a DMC

Pratik MazumderHead - Marketing & StrategicAlliance, Yatra.com

Rajesh MagowCo-Founder, COO & CFOMakeMyTrip

Travellers in the maturemarkets are far moreinternet savvy andaccustomed to online travelpurchase, that makes all theleading OTAs look gleefullyat attracting inboundtravellers to India

Clicking Travel Options

OTA

With focus on consolidat-ing its share in

the emerging Tier-I, Tier-IIand Tier-III markets,Expedia.co.in, a leadingonline travel company andRedBus, announced its part-nership with India’s leadingbus ticketing company in thefirst week of November 2012.

Commenting on theoccasion, Vikram Malhi,Country Head, Expedia Indiasaid, “Buses are one of thepreferred modes of transportin India, connecting some ofthe key Tier-I, Tier-II andTier-III cities.

With an increasingnumber of travellerschoosing short weekend getaways,the demand for bus services has significantly risen over the last few years.”

“We have constantly setnew benchmarks with ourinnovative and unique offer-ings, including allowing trav-ellers to tailor-make theirown trip as per their needs.In our endeavour to create a

holistic offering by road, wehave introduced this newservice in our portfolio. With this tie-up, we are aiming to strengthen ourdomestic and inbound travel

solutions for an enhancedexperience,” he added.

The said partnershipwill provide Expedia theaccess to bus seat inventoryfor more than 1,80,000 busservices, operated by 900operators across the country.The addition of such aninventory is likely toenhance the overall travelexperience in India to thenext level for both domesticand foreign tourists explor-ing the country.

“Expedia is growingrapidly in India and we are

very happy to partner withthem for bus tickets. Withthis partnership, we provideour deep understanding ofbus consumer behaviour tothem and in return our busoperators get distributionaccess on a rapidly growingplatform like Expedia,” saidPhanindra Sama, CEO,RedBus.

“Bus travel has beengrowing at the rate of 25 percent every year and hasbecome a preferred mode oftransport. This is because, forseveral routes likeBengaluru-Chennai andAhmedabad-Mumbai; bustravel takes same time asmuch as by rail. On top ofthat, luxury buses also pro-vide unmatched executiveclass comfort to bus trav-ellers,” he added.

The partnership with RedBus is part of its pursuit to offera localised and complete travel booking solutions to thegrowing Tier-I, Tier-II and Tier-III markets in India.

Expedia takes ‘bus’ forward

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Vikram MalhiCountry HeadExpedia India

Sri Lanka showcased to 64 agents

The said partnership willprovide Expedia the access tobus seat inventory for morethan 1,80,000 bus services,operated by 900 operatorsacross the country

The addition of such aninventory is likely to enhancethe overall travel experience inIndia to the next level for bothdomestic and foreign touristsexploring the country

Win Win Deal

Sri Lanka recently conducted one of the biggest fams ever with a group of 64 individuals consisting of touragents from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. The purpose of the fam was to showcase MICE venues inSri Lanka and also highlight incentive travel in the country.

STATES

Luckily as the tiger tourismban was lifted, the parks

in Madhya Pradesh opened intime for festivities across thecountry. This combined witha few holidays increased thenumber of domestic touristsvisiting the parks. “Now withlimited people being allowedinto the parks and with thereduction of carrying capaci-ty, there has been no majordamage or loss to the rev-enue generated and as awhole to the wildlife sector.Domestic tourists have filledthe void created by inboundtourism,” says Om VijayChoudhary, Chief GeneralManager, Madhya PradeshTourism.

The domestic sectorcontinues to be the maindriving force for MadhyaPradesh. “Domestic tourismhas great importance andpeople have the payingcapacity and interest in prod-ucts available. Thoughinbound continues to beimportant for foreignexchange,” he adds.

Along with promotionalactivities the State is workingtowards developing its infra-structure and productofferings. “InMadhya Pradesh, theconnectivity andinfrastructure needsto be developed andwe are workingtowards this. We reg-ularly undertakeinnovations and new

initiatives. We are the pio-neers of Caravan Tourism andwe have made private cara-van bays in all our hotelsacross the state.

We have alsostarted intra-air taxiservices, which hasfurther helped inboosting tourism.This has providedan ease and helpedin connecting faraway destinationsacross the state,”explains Choudhary.

Madhya PradeshTourism has been hostingagent familiarisation tripsregularly but Choudhary feelsthat, when there is a goodproduct, the demand is goingto be generated. When infra-structure and product isavailable in any destination,it is bound to sell.

For 2013, the Stateplans to concentrate on theirrelations with the private sec-tor and put them in the driv-ing seat for tourism develop-ment. “Our main concentra-tion is on the private invest-

ments. There are no largescale private players in thetourism sector of the stateand private products need tobe created as a tourist attrac-tion,” adds Choudhary.

Recently, MadhyaPradesh conducted a Globalinvestor meet and saw hugeinvestment potential and ishopeful for some develop-ments in the near future.

“Madhya PradeshGovernment has a land bankto be given to the private part-ners through a transparentsystem to develop hotels andtourism products and helpboost the sector. With effortsand investments of the privatesector the state’s tourismpotential can come a long way.

At present, we have agrowth of 12 per centand are hopeful that with private partner-ships more demandand supply will be cre-ated to a greaterextend,” concludesChoudhary.

As the domestic sector continues to be the major thrustfor MP Tourism, the state encourages private entrepreneursto undertake tourism initiatives to boost the sector.

Calling private players

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Om Vijay ChoudharyChief General ManagerMadhya Pradesh Tourism

Madhya Pradesh

cause. He says, “Airlines can combine the ground handling serviceswhich will reduce cost of our community. Also, by collaborating in distributionarea and setting up our owndistribution channel, wemight further lower ouroperational cost as airlinespay close to US$ 200-250million a year to foreignentity for this service.Catering is another areawhere unity in airline willtrim down the cost.”

Cost v/s Profit Adding on managing

the operational cost and yetearn profits, Aditya Ghosh,

President, IndiGo said, “Iftoday, IndiGo starts offeringcheaper rates and earn rev-enues which are lower thanour operating cost, therewill be one airline less inthe Indian skies. So how canairlines charge low fares tohave full loads and get intolosses? Why is there moreemphasis on market shareand filling the seats? Thefocus should be more onreducing the internal cost,which will reduce the over-all operating cost, resultingin more profitability in rev-enue earned.” According toCAPA, IndiGo remains theleading performer in theIndian aviation market andwill post the highest profit

(US$ 47-57 million) amongother airlines during Q3-FY012 ending December31, 2012.

So, it’s time for the air-line operators to cometogether, work on commonplatforms which will reducethe overall operating cost ofthe airline community. Indianeeds a strong aviation pol-icy instead of just milking itto the core. Internationalairlines are constantlyexpanding their operationsin India which shows thatIndia is indeed a very strongtravel market. So, Indiancarriers should buckle upand tap it’s own market withviable pricing strategies.

Contd. from page 18

A strong aviation policy...Sanchi Stupa in Madhya Pradesh

STATES2 4 TRAVTALK D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh Tourismhas created a lot of buzz

since this summer. The State Tourism has conducted domestic road-shows, increased the numberof familiarisation trips and isparticipating in internationaltrade shows. “In the lastthree months we have organ-ised roadshows in India andhosted familiarisation tripsfor a large number of agentsfrom Pune, Delhi, Mumbaiand Kolkata. Each tour hasbeen customised adapting tothe different tourismdemands from each region,as we feel ‘seeing is believ-ing’ and will make it easierfor the private sector to pro-mote the destination. Wehope to see results of theseinitiatives soon,” says

Chandana Khan, SpecialChief Secretary, Tourism andCulture, Government ofAndhra Pradesh.

“A lot of destinations inAndhra Pradesh are underpromoted. In the internation-al market, we are not display-ing every nook and corner of

the state but are focussing onplaces which have sufficientair connectivity and goodinfrastructure,” she adds.

Hyderabad, the Statecapital, adds tourism attrac-tions nearly every year andits remarkable infrastruc-ture is helping, the city, develop as a MICE destination.

“Recently the cityorganised a MICEevent with 8,000foreign visitors from193 nations. It’s ourstate-of-the-artfacilities that boostour confidence incatering such large groups,”

adds Khan. Making most oftheir MICE movements, thestate has developed weekendgetaways from Hyderabad toshow visitors more aspects ofthe State. “The MICE seg-ment gives us mileage. Weorganise cultural pro-grammes every evening andoffer support services to alllarge MICE movements. Weare promoting weekend get-aways and are trying to show

the landscapes, heritage andculture of the State,” high-lights Khan.

Another attractionbeing promoted is the riverand sea cruise package in thenorthern costal region of AP.In Visakhapatnam along theGodavari belt, the Stateoffers, the coconut country,sea beaches, cruises andpeace of the water.

Wanting to increasetourism figures from otherstates, Khan is promoting thefairs and festivals of AndhraPradesh, especially theFlamingo Festival, this January.

AP shares its borderswith five states and Khan isplanning to make the most ofthis. “We have spoken toChhattisgarh Tourism and wewill develop tourism oppor-tunities within our tribal pop-ulation and offer a holisticexperience,” says Khan.

An MoU was recentlysigned with ITDCto promoteinter-state promotion. “We are projecting a growthof about eight per cent in2013 but the figures fromlast year have only increasedby two to three per cent,”concludes Khan.

Andhra Pradesh has a lot of new tourism products to offer; weekend getaways from Hyderabad, MICE promotions,river & sea packages and tribal tourism alliances to name a few. With this and trade development activities,the state expects at least an eight per cent growth in the number of tourist arrivals in 2013.

India’s next big MICE destination

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Chandana KhanSpecial Chief Secretary, Tourism andCulture, Government of Andhra Pradesh

HICC in Hyderabad

Punjab has developed many new tourism products and circuits. Among them there is Religious Tourism with efforts beingmade on Sufi & Buddhist Tourism and the latest being Farm Tourism. Punjab Tourism Board is also training tour operators.

Punjab Tourism is nowfocussing on marketing

the state and increasing thenumber of visitors. In 2011, itranked 14th amongst all theIndian states in the number oftourism arrivals and very soonthey hope to be in the top ten

visited states by tourists. “ Wehave made a master plan incoordination with theUNWTO. We now have a basicframework ready and aremoving according to the

plans,” says Alka Kapoor,Manager Projects, PunjabHeritage and TourismPromotional Board whileinforming,

“Farm Tourism is an important newdevelopment forPunjab and we have already registered 22 farmhouses under this scheme.”

“We are promotingfarm tourism in a big way.Every farmhouse is spe-

cialised in something different and foreigners andstudents enjoy participatingin this tourism specialisa-tion,” she explains.

Religious Tourism hasalways been an important cir-cuit for Punjab Tourism and ithopes to receive a large num-ber of tourists after the startof the Panch Takht train. “ThePanch Takht luxury train forfive takhts (thought two arenot in Punjab) will begin fromJanuary 1, 2013 and we hopeto receive a larger NRI popu-lation with this development.Travelling the Sikh religioussights will be much more com-

fortable now,” Kapoorelaborates.

Punjab Tourismofficials attended therecent Buddhist con-clave organised by theMinistry of Tourism andhave now developed aBuddhist itinerary forthe state and will focus on promotingBuddhist tourism also.

Developing tourism prod-ucts based on Sufism is alsoon the cards because of theoverwhelming popularity of

the recent Sufi festival thatwas concluded in Amritsar.

“Training the travelagents about the differenttourism circuits available in Punjab is our focus now.The religious circuit, freedomtrail and historical sites attractthe maximum visitors. In thePhase one of our training pro-gramme, we certified 25 touroperators from Chandigarh,150 from Delhi and 25 fromManali. The next phase, beingcompleted within this year,will include tour operator

training programmes inMumbai, Bengaluru and WestBengal. Fam trips will also beincluded in this,” says Kapoor.

Developing the stateinfrastructure is also under-way and special focus hasbeen laid on Amritsar. “We arereceiving funds from the centre and looking at infra-structure development in thestate especially Amritsar. Wewill be opening interpretationcentre in the city to facilitatetranslations for foreigners,”concludes Kapoor.

STATES2 6 TRAVTALK D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2

Alka KapoorManager Projects Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotional Board

Farms luring tourists in PunjabDE V I KA JE E T

In the recent statisticsreleased by the Ministry of

Tourism, Tamil Nadu receivedthe second highest number offoreign tourists and the third largest number of domestictourist among all the Indian states.

“We are a culture-basedsouth Indian state and wehave been constantly learningand improving to attracttourists. With the new govern-ment being in power, smoothstay for foreigners was lookedinto and included, the law and order, peaceful stays, trav-el and food. All facilities arelooked into to help make anytrip to Tamil Nadu peacefuland enjoyable,” says S GokulaIndira, Minister for Tourism, Tamil Nadu.

This year, the Ministry ofTourism has been working onthe new tourism policy, “Weare going to work, in a big way,on a new tourism policy whichwill be in line with the vision2023, laid down by our ChiefMinister. We are looking at abroader span of time in thenext 10 years for this plan andwill lay down the strategy andaction plan for the same. 2013will be incorporated in this,”says Hemant K Sinha,Chairman and ManagingDirector, Tamil Nadu TourismDevelopment Corporation.

Following aggressivemarketing plans, “TamilNadu has been strong in cre-ating good infrastructure andwe also have a very goodconnectivity. In the past, wehave focussed on the coreissues of infrastructure,improving connectivity, basic

hoteling, internal routes,power, security and all kindof communication mediums,”elaborates Sinha.

Discussing some of theproblems faced by theTourism Board, Sinha high-lights recessions and theneed to change strategy fornew markets. “We feel thatwe need to change our strat-egy and reach newer mar-kets. We have a strong clien-tele from USA, UK andEurope. We see a very strongpotential to reach the gulfareas for Medical Tourism.We can also tie up with mar-kets from South East Asiaand can compete with themby attracting travellers to thestate,” elaborates Sinha.

The Minister especiallydiscussed about the infrastruc-ture development that is beingworked on. “We have calledinvestors and are showingthem potential land. We havea very long beach fromChennai to Kanyakumari andwe expect private investmentsin this regard,” says Indira.

On regular interactionwith the trade, “We are plan-ning a full day promotion andinteraction with the leadingtour operators,” explainsSinha while further adding,“We are popular with repeattourists, as the USP of thestate is definitely its varietyand diversity and sky is thelimit for us, because of TamilNadu’s geography.”

Implementing their decade long tourism policy nextyear, Tamil Nadu recognises its tourism potential andfocusses on strengthening the state infrastructure.

New Tourism Policy

The state isstrong increating goodinfrastructureand has very goodconnectivity

We havecalledinvestors andare showingthem potentialinvestmentoptions

S Gokula IndiraMinister for TourismTamil Nadu

Hemant K SinhaChairman and Managing Director,Tamil Nadu Tourism DevelopmentCorporation

DE V I KA JE E T

Punjab has registered 22 farmhouses to promote Farm Tourism

ANALYSIS2 8 TRAVTALK D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2

In this internet driven world,World Wide Web has been

opening many new opportuni-ties and challenges for thetravel trade in India. As if thecompetitive fares of onlineplayers were not a challengeenough, travel trade today aremore often confronted by theirclients, complaining aboutmore competitive fares listedby even principles.

As per Guldeep SinghSahni, President, OTOAI, thedynamics of travel and tourismin India is such that clients trustinterface with travel agentsthan staring at a mere interfacewith machine. “Airlines andhotels had been showing stronginclination and investingaccordingly, in the direct sellingplatform like the web. We can’tstop them from approachingthe customers directly, but it isnot sustainable in the longrun,” said Sahni.

“For instance, today, wehave about 15 million out-bound visitors from India,

which as per UNWTO projec-tion is likely to cross the 50million mark by 2020. I don’t

think that the airlines or hote-liers can serve them throughweb platform and more specif-

ically without using their B2Bpartners, who anyway act astheir extended arms. Since,

travel agents will continue toremain relevant, it’s importantfor our principals to actresponsibly and not chop-offtheir own hands that are animportant part of the overalldistribution channel. Hence,at least web parity should bemaintained,” he added.

Here encouraging thetravel trade to innovate fur-ther, Subhash Goyal,President, IATO, “Internet ande-commerce are a reality.Going forward, there is onlyone surety that the web-basedchallenges will only increase.Here, it’s the responsibility ofthe agents to innovate and goan extra mile in terms of open-ing all possible avenues toincrease its top-line, even if itrequires them to sell valueadded services like offeringvisa facilitation or selling travelinsurances to name a few.”

“The web in variousinstances throws notionalchallenges, as the attractiveprices listed online most ofthe times act as baits. Forinstance, I myself tried book-

ing an online air ticket, whichinitially looked more attrac-tively priced compared to theavailable pricing offeredthrough a B2B channel. But,during the booking process, Irealised the final cost washigher than the B2B channel.Hence, I returned to myoffline partner to get the airticket,” he added.

Sahni also recounts hisexperience of having lost avery loyal clientele, whilewith the new walk-in clientshe witnessed a steep fall dueto better fares availableonline. “We initially lost ourimportant loyal customers,while the walk-in clients simply went with the onlineoption, which caused tempo-rary disturbances in business.But, these clients returnedwith their bad experiences of having bought online and having lost all the convenience and support thata travel agent provides themon a 24*7 basis, ensuring

B2B not wary of online challenges VI V E K SE T H I

Mostly afteradding varioustaxes, charges,other terms andconditions; theonline options endup being dearer

The web in variousinstances throwscertain challengessuch as the attractiveprices listed onlinemost of the times act as baits

We initially lostour importantloyal customers,while the walk-inclients simplywent with theonline options

Guldeep Singh SahniPresidentOTOAI

Subhash GoyalPresidentIATO

Subhash VermaPresidentADTOI

The travel trade seems more confident of growing amid the various challenges being thrown by the online playersand increasing instances of growing variance in prices for air, accommodation and at times, the entire packages.

Contd. on page 47

HOTELS D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2 TRAVTALK 3 1

Travel World Experiences(TWX) has launched a

new venture with a UK-basedcompany called Check SafetyFirst. This is a 20-year-oldcompany already operating in33 countries. They cover1,800 hotels worldwide andare now foraying into theIndia market. “We are riskmanagement consultants andhelp hotels to manage risksinvolved in the variousaspects of hotel functioning.This includes fire, food, safety,water and other aspects,” saysVivek Angra, President-India,Check Safety First.

“Basically we go tohotels and tell them that weare a one-stop-shop whereyou can get consultancy for allsafety aspects of a hotel. Ourrobust software, E-crystalhelps us grade each aspect,”adds Angra.

The company provides aconsultancy and their consult-ant will visit the property oncea month on a surprise visit andthen go through around 250safety check points at thehotel. Food safety is a core riskarea and there are 250 check-points from the place of receiv-ing the raw materials till thefood reaches the plate finally.“We check hygiene, tempera-ture, environment etc, toname a few and while we dothat, the software at the endof the audit provides marks tothe hotel. If they get over 65,then the hotel qualifies to beon two of our websites; ‘checksafety’ first website and ‘tour check’. The websites pro-mote these hotels worldwideto the end consumers and also promotes the hotelsamongst tour operators world-wide,” he explains.

Through their websites,check safety first provides aB2B and B2C marketing planand platform for the hotelsthey audit and provide consul-tancy for.

Training programmesand sample audits havealready taken place at majorhotel chains in Delhi, Agra and

Jaipur. “Hotel Clarks Shiraz,Agra, is our first client,” saysAngra. Discussing the revenuemodel he adds, “We charge thehotels a fee depending on thenumber of modules theychoose. These can range fromfood checks to aqua checks,

pool checks, fire checks, ecochecks, room checks, criseschecks, general safety checksand tour checks.”

The food checks areapplicable for independentrestaurants and all aspects ofhospitality where food is

involved. “Once a hotel comeson board and if we see a caseof food poisoning or falling illand legal action is being taken,we take over the case andprove due diligence at everystage. We fight every legal bat-tle for the hotel,” says Angra.

Concluding on a strongnote, Angra adds, “Our mainpurpose is not just the certifi-cation but training the staffalso. We bring all our interna-tional knowledge from acrossthe globe and help hotelsgrow safely.”

Check Safety First forays into India promising to provide all safety solutions to hotels under one brand. They vouchfor their certification and will even take care of any legal hassle after their safety checks are complete.

A one-stop shop for hotel safetyTT BU R E AU

Vivek AngraPresident-India Check Safety First

Food safety is a core riskarea. There are 250checkpoints from the placeof receiving the rawmaterials till the foodreaches the plate finally

Food Safety

ENIT, which was operatingits tourism office in India

for 11 years, closed their officelast year in December, due tosome uncertain reasons.While announcing the latestversion of ‘Italia comes to you’exhibition in India, IvanoFucci, Project Coordinator,

Italia comes to you Event,ENIT announced that theTourism Board will be reopen-ing its office in India by mid-2013 in Mumbai, India. Oncethe office comes in place, itwill come out with concretemarketing and business plansto increase tourism traffic

from India to Italy. Meanwhile,ENIT has also organised anelaborated exhibition called‘Italia comes to you’ inMumbai featuring music,beauty, fashion, history, cul-ture and gastronomy of the

country. Similar exhibitionswill take place in New Delhi(Dec 5-9) and Bengaluru (Dec17-21). The exhibition willalso include a training pro-gramme, an interactive sem-inar and a B2B workshop withItalian suppliers. Through thisexhibition we have made astrong push to provide anexperience of the rich cultureand vibrancy of Italy whichcaters to the likes of the evolv-ing Indian travellers.”

He said, “To update ourtravel agent partners with

latest information on Italy,we are organising a 3-hourcertified training pro-gramme for them. We havealso included an interactiveseminar - ‘Experience Italy! The new path of

Italian tourism in India’, inwhich we have invited delegates from travel asso-ciations like TAAI and TAFI to participate in theseminar. Moreover, with 25 Italian suppliers (60 percent hoteliers, 30 per cent ground handlers and 10per cent attractions), wehave also organised one-on-one B2B meetings for travelagents.” Overall, ENIT aimsto attract over 200 travelagents in all the three citiesduring this exhibition.

NTO

Thailand received 9.1lakh Indians in 2011

making it the most visiteddestination by Indians in2011. With just one monthleft to go in 2012, Thailandhopes to receive 1 millionIndians this year. In the lastfew months, all flights goingto Thailand have been over-booked by at least 30 pas-sengers. The country hasbeen witnessing a 6 per centincrease every month fromIndia in 2012 as compared to2011. One of the main rea-sons for this positive growthis its close proximity toIndia, several flight connec-tions and relatively cheaperhotel room rates as com-pared to Singapore, Malaysiaor even at times to India.

Sethaphan Buddhani,Director, Tourism Authorityof Thailand, says “India is avery important market for us.A lot of Indians prefer to visitThailand at least once in theirlifetime. In fact, 60 per cent

of Indian arrivals are repeattravellers and we are veryhappy about that.”

To attract more repeattravellers, Buddhani said thatnewer destinations like KhaoYai are being introduced in

the Indian market and will beaggressively promoted inIndia for the next three years.“A first time Indian willalways do a Bangkok-Pattaya.In their second visit, theyexplore the more niche des-tinations like Koh Samui,Krabi and Phuket. We are

introducing Khao Yai as analternative to Pattaya in theIndian market for families tovisit as it is only 250 km fromBangkok.”

In 2013, Buddhani addedthat they are planning onexpanding their promotions toTier-II cities like Hyderabad,Ahmedabad and Pune whichthey now want to tap. “Tier-Icities are well-educated aboutThailand through movies, promotions etc.

We need to makeour presence felt inthe Tier-II citiesnow and also attractthe niche travellerswho will spendmore number ofdays in our country.

We are also looking atpromoting Thailand as a wed-ding destination amongIndians as we have greatresorts, beaches and can cus-tomise according to the Indianrituals and traditions.”

Being one the most popular destinations among Indians,Thailand is now targetting the niche travellers from Indiaand introducing newer destinations in the Indian market.

Touching 1mn Indian arrivals

DE N CY MAT H E W

Sethaphan BuddhaniDirectorTourism Authority of Thailand

Italian State Tourism Board – ENIT is all geared up toreopen its office in Mumbai in mid-2013. It will alsoshowcase the country through ‘Italia comes to you’.

ENIT to reopen India office

AN I TA JA I N

Ivano FucciProject CoordinatorItalia comes to you Event, ENIT

Speaking to , Fucci informed that India is an importanttourist source market for Italy and during their absence in thecountry; the tourism board had maintained their business rela-tionships with the travel trade partners in India. He said, “Indiais an important market for us with significant increase in touristarrivals of 1,97,000 in 2010 which equals to 4,61,000 overnightsas per the Official Statistics of the Italian National Institute forStatistics (ISTAT) and we expect these numbers to grow further.

Why India is important?

EXHIBITIONS3 6 TRAVTALK D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2

Every year, the travel and tourism industry looks forward to World Travel Market (WTM) heldin November at ExCel in London. The market provides the perfect platform to learn anddiscuss the latest business trends in the industry. While WTM helps some in generating newdeals, the others make the best of this platform to showcase their products and network onan international level.There were over 110 Indian exhibitors from the trade, State Governments and Union Territoriesparticipating this year. Find out what our industry members have to say post WTM 2012...

Strong networking during WTM 2012

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Raja NatesanChief Operating Officer, TUI India

This time, WTM has been more about knowing what you wantand knowing where to get it. If you have been sitting in oneplace and expecting things to happen then that hasn’t happenedbut if you have gone out and reached out to people then a lothas happened. I am very happy with the event.

Vikas AbbottManaging Director, Vasco Travel

WTM has been very interesting for us as we were able to identifya lot of potential for our company. UK is our next focus market andwe see a lot of opportunity for our product. We have made goodcontacts at WTM this year and it’s been a good show for us. Weparticipated for the first time and are very happy with it. We hada majority of prefixed interviews with a very few walk-ins.

Amit MitraMinister-In-charge, Finance & Excise Department,Government of West Bengal

No state in India has the mountains as well as beaches and no statehas the delta area like the Sundarbans. Very few cities in the worldare like Kolkata which is a living culture and a center of films, artand culture, so we are selling mountains, foothills, Sundarbans,cruises, Kolkata as a city and its art & craft. WTM was a wonderfulexperience and everyone is saying that Bengal is on the rise andin a few years, Bengal will be a big tourist destination in India.

Chandana KhanSpecial Chief Secretary, Tourism and Culture,Government of Andhra Pradesh

I attended the WTM event after five years. I think it’s becomemore focussed and business oriented. We did not just showcasewhat we can offer but also leveraged it for more business devel-opment and better outcomes. I got the opportunity to talk to touroperators and a lot of them were keen in bringing groups toAndhra Pradesh

Om Vijay ChoudharyChief General Manager, Madhya Pradesh Tourism

We look at WTM as a platform for interaction and publicity of thestate and to showcase our products. We find it very genuine andrealistic. This year has been good. Luckily, we have been able tointeract with agents and operators who have had apprehensionsabout Tiger Tourism in the state and we have been able to satisfythem and also planned a roadshow for the future.

S Gokula IndiraMinister For Tourism, Tamil Nadu

We are happy with the response. WTM is a good experience forunderstanding the expectations of the tourists and the travelagents. We can learn and get full knowledge of products that wereexhibited there. This helps us in improving our offering, learnmore and attract a larger number of tourists.

Apurv KumarManaging Director, Clarks Group of Hotels

Our meetings have been fruitful and the response has been positiveabout India where ever we go but we have not created a cohesiveimage about India. We are the oldest hotel company in India andour meetings and businesses have been very consistent but eventhen India can get more.

G SathyavathiDirector, Department of Tourism, Karnataka

It’s my first visit to WTM and I think it’s been a fantastic experi-ence. WTM provides a stage for every country, to showcase theirtourism potential and also provide an exposure for everyone tosee what the other countries are doing while networking with eachother. WTM is a good platform for the tourism industry.

Ashwini KakkarExecutive Vice-Chairman, Mercury Travels

On the first business day, we had a good number of trade visitorsbut the general footfalls were lower. I think in terms of trademeetings fixed in advance, they worked out very well. So far, itseems to be a positive world travel market for us.

Jai SreedharGeneral Manager- Leisure Sales and Marketing, The Leela Palace, Hotels and Resorts

The key decision makers and right agents were present at theWTM this year. Especially at this time, when the market is comingout of depression, it was good to reconnect with people. WTM ismore a visibility event. The UK market is so important to us thatwe all need to be visible here.

FAMILY ALBUM3 8 TRAVTALK D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2

The Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to India, Kazakhstan’s national carrier Air Astana and its GSA CozyDeepika Group welcomed the Indian traveltrade at the seventh Kazakhstan-India Travel and Tourism Fair. The event saw many high-profile delegates of the ministry and eminent travel trade fromboth the countries of India and Kazakhstan.

7th Kazakhstan-India Travel & Tourism Fair

In the recently held on ‘What is the biggest challenge faced by a travel agency today to grow their business’,we received a huge response from the industry. We are glad that a few travel agents contributed with thought provoking opinions. Following are the comments:

ANALYSIS4 0 TRAVTALK D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2

Agents voice their opinions on challenges

TT BU R E AU

This is the time to change the focus toinnovative ideas by promoting specialtour packages, which needs betterknowledge of the destination. Travelagencies will have to find ways to with-stand this competition by devising costeffective packages and tour operatorswill have to focus on developing nicheproducts and customised packages withmultiple interests. We need to changewith times, as we all understand thatcompetition is survival of the fittest.

Mohan TickooMD, Kash' Venture Travels, New Delhi

I feel the biggest challenge to growbusiness in the travel trade is its unor-ganised structure. There is a dearth oftravel professionals and no set ethicsor parameters to run the business thatare uniform across all companies.

Amit MandpeDeputy Manager – MICE

Contracting, Cox & Kings, Mumbai

What’s ailing the Tourism Industry today?No commission, lot of taxes,technology or something else?Answer is a little different.

a) No Commission offered by airlines, hotels and transporters.Take for example a hotel whosepublished rate for room is ` 5,000 per day. The Hoteloffers 25% commission toagent. This would mean ̀ 4,000is the realisation for the hotel.Let us assume that the hotel hasa 15% mark-up so the actualcost of the room is ̀ 3,260. Thecustomer who has paid ` 5,000gets service equivalent to` 3,260 only. Therefore, whenthe tourist purchases air tickets,hotel bookings or transportthrough the Internet, he saveslot of money which otherwisewould have gone to the agent.

BUT – the tourist does not knowwhich hotel would be most suit-able for him or which airlines

connection would save him timeor which transport would beideal to travel to a given loca-tion. Here comes the function ofa travel agent who would rec-ommend to the tourist exactrequirements. The travel agenthas 2 options – a) Charge pro-fessional fees or b) Recommenda hotel and transport whichoffers the agent highest com-mission.

Unfortunately, the agent wouldrevert to the latter option as itwould be much easier thangathering knowledge of theplace through books, theInternet or travelling to see thehotel before recommending it.

Let us consider another exampleof a lawyer or dentist. In boththese professions, the fee is paidas professional charges for serv-ice. There is no guarantee thatthe lawyer would win your case

or the dentist would perfectlyset the tooth. Still people paythem in advance to avail services. The travel agent hasto build up his goodwill or brandsimilarly so that touristsapproach the agency, wheneverthey have to travel.

b) Lack of destination knowledgeis a big problem. Why a touristshould visit India from let us sayRussia? What are the places thetourist would be looking for?How much money would he liketo spend in India? What wouldhe like to eat? (A group oftourists came back from Indiaand complained about food.They were offered Bread ‘pakora’ for breakfast, ‘Dal’ atlunch.) It clearly shows lack ofknowledge on the part of touroperators in India about theirclients. If the tour operator caninform the tourist in advancethat the location they wish to

visit does not have amenitiesthat they would expect, thenthere would be no problem.

c) Opportunities Therefore, let usbe optimistic and not worryabout commission, taxes, butgear ourselves for meetingdemands of tourists, providingproper services, improvinginfrastructure, choice of desti-nation and finally a smiling faceto say good bye. The tour oper-ator would earn more moneythis way than he could haveearned by way of commission.

Let the tour operator under-stand that his income is comingfrom tourists and not from air-lines, hotels or transporters.

Arun KumarDirector, TOO RAGA

Kazakhstan

RAILWAYS

“Air travel is so expen-sive, let’s take a train”,

this is an oft-heard conversa-tion at all homes. But then ifa train ride costs ten timesmore than your airfare, thenyou know that the experiencewill not be forgotten in ahurry. And why not, after allthe facilities on-board offerevery indulgence imaginable,from spa facilities on-boardright down to customisedcutlery for the guests!

As Pradip Kundu, JointGeneral Manager-PR, IRCTC,rightly puts it, “Much of thenew boom in luxury trainshas come in Asia. When itcomes to luxury rail tours,India leads the way with asmany as 6 luxury trains offer-ing unique cultural experi-ences across destinations inIndia. India’s rise in theindustry was acknowledgedduring the World TravelAward Ceremony 2012 inQatar where India was votedas ‘World’s Leading TravelDestination’. So, this indeedis an exciting time for theluxury travel segment inIndia. The luxury trains inIndia mainly target Europe…particularly UK, USA, Japan,West Asia and South-EastAsia as potential market.”

Exciting is definitelythe keyword for luxury trainsin India, as Indians areclimbing higher up the glob-al economic ladder, they

have more disposableincome and are now willingto spend more to make theirholidays, a memorable expe-rience. Even though themarket for luxury trains ismostly from foreign tourists,but the number of Indianstravelling on luxury trainswithin India has alsoincreased.

As CD Dyavaiah,Managing Director, KarnatakaState Tourism DevelopmentCorporation says, “The GoldenChariot started in the year2008 with 23 per cent occu-pancy. In the year 2011-12 thesame has reached to 40 percent showcasing a steadygrowth of market for the train.Most of our international trav-ellers are from Europe, USA,Australia, Canada and SouthAmerica. When we stared thetrain in 2008, the occupancylevel of Indian travellers wasjust 5 per cent while the samehas increased to around 20 per cent in the year 2011-12,this indicates that the train is becoming popular not only among international travellers but also amongdomestic tourists.”

However, as Kundupoints out, “This growth isnot as much as the growth inIndians travelling abroad for

vacations. But Indians, resid-ing abroad, prefer to travelback to India, with families,to connect to their roots and

to explore history as it direct-ly relates to one's life. Thenumber of such Indians trav-elling on luxury trains hasmarked a considerablegrowth over the past coupleof years. Consider this, bysome estimates, the globalranks of middle class doubledover the last 20 years. OnMaharajas’ Express, weenvelop our passengers in afascinating and an unforget-table cocoon of luxury andbespoke opulence. The causefor concern could be, howev-er, that the global economicslowdown has impacted thetourist market. There couldbe at least 8-10 per cent dipin total inbound tourists,especially those coming fromthe USA and UK.”

Out there to ensure thatthe journey with them is anunforgettable experience,luxury trains are now offeringa slice of royal life to discern-

ing travellers giving them anexcellent way to explore thecountry without having tocompromise on comfort.

Luxury never comes cheap but, if a discerning traveller is willing to shellout those extra bucks, then the luxury trains in India are pulling all stops,to make their journey an unforgettable one.

Luxury on wheels builds momentum

PEDEN DOMA BHUTIA

When it comes toluxury rail tours,India leads the waywith as many as 6 luxury trains offering unique culturalexperiences across destinationsin India

Pradip KunduJoint General Manager-PRIRCTC

When we stared the train in 2008,the occupancy level of Indiantravellers was just 5 per cent whilethe same has increased to around20 per cent in the year 2011-12

CD Dyavaiah, Managing Director, Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation

Europe visited on a fam

The month of October saw a group of Indian travel agents discover Switzerland, France and Germany fromOctober 8-14. This European sojourn was organised by Rail Europe in collaboration with its partners – SwitzerlandTourism, Strasbourg Tourism Office, Stuttgart Marketing & The State Tourist Board, Hochschwarzwald Tourismusand Heidelberg Marketing. The participants in the fam visited Gstaad and Interlaken in Switzerland; Strasbourgin France; Stuttgart, Titisee, Black Forest Region and Heidelberg in Germany.

Greek VisaApplicationCentres

The Embassy of Greece inNew Delhi extended the facil-ity for the collection of visaapplications and deliveryprocess to eight new Indiancities with the appointment ofVFS Global. VFS Global alreadyoffers this facility in New Delhiand has now extended it tocities like Mumbai, Bengaluru,Chandigarh, Chennai,Jalandhar, Kochi, Kolkata andPuducherry. The service centrecharges Rs 807 (exclusive ofEmbassy visa fee) in New Delhiand will charge Rs 1,403(exclusive of Embassy visa fee)in the new cities as service feefrom visa applicants of Indianorigin. The cost will includetwo way courier charges fortransfer of the visa applicationsto New Delhi (from the other 8cities) and returning the pass-ports at the Schengen VisaApplication Centres in therespective cities.

AVIATION D E C E M B E R 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 2 TRAVTALK 4 3

and deliver the internationalvisitors the experience theyseek. Our International cam-paign is called - ‘Find WhatYou Seek’ - highlighting thefact that India offers a widerange of experience like noother destination offersincluding conventional, cul-tural, heritage, history,nature-based experience toniche products like adven-ture, sports, eco, golf, andwellness too.

“We will focus onencouraging our domestictravellers with another cam-paign called - Go Beyond -which will help them explorenewer destinations in India.They will also be ensured ofsmooth connectivity andworld-class infrastructure atall the tourist attractions. Weshall also build on our cam-paign ‘Clean India’ to offerhygienic and clean environ-ment,” he added.

Chiranjeevi in hisaddress also made a point todispel the overt image thatdestination India has beingtermed as an expensive des-tination. “We offer the ulti-mate experience to travellers,seeking the best of luxury andhospitality backed by ourethos of treating our guestslike God and world acclaimedaccommodation options. Weare a destination for all andprovide affordable facilitieswith world-class experienceseven for the budgeted trav-ellers,” he explained.

He also shared his hap-piness on having a separateIndia Pavilion for the firsttime at WTM event. “Thisyear, India participated inWTM in a big way. We had1,015 sq m of space as com-pared to 896 sq m last year,while the private players hastaken over 1,300 sq m,”informed the Minister.

“India welcomed 6.29million international visitorsin 2011, registering a growthof over 8.9 per cent YoY. This year during January-September, we have built onthe momentum to 9.9 percent growth rate in touristarrivals. We hope to deploythe three fold increase in ourtourism budget over the 12th

Plan Period to create an addi-tional 25 million employmentopportunities in the tourismindustry,” he added.

Find WhatYou Seek...

Contd. from page 1

MOT’s internationalcampaign is called - FindWhat You Seek - highlightingthe fact that India offers awide range of experience

MOT will focus onencouraging domestictravellers with the campaign- Go Beyond

Calling Tourists

The new solution offersgreater flexibility to pas-

sengers who can now createbookings online (without anyadditional charges) and payfor these bookings in cash ata local Qatar Airways reser-vations and ticketing office.

Payment must be completedwithin 24 hours of creatingthe booking on its web-por-tal. Passengers who prefer topay with credit cards can stillcomplete their travelarrangements online.

Akbar Al Baker, ChiefExecutive Officer, QatarAirways said that the new

on-hold booking functional-ity was introduced to givepassengers more paymentchoices. “This solution isboth user-friendly and givespassengers greater flexibili-ty. Qatar Airways is commit-ted to continually innovatingand improving our productsand services to enhance the

travel experience for ourcustomers” Over the nextfew months, Qatar Airwayswill launch services to adiverse portfolio of newroutes, including Warsaw,Poland (December 5),Gassim, Saudi Arabia (Jan 7,2013); and Chicago, USA(April 10, 2013).

A new booking feature has been initiated where customers can pay forreservations made on its website at any of its local office.

New payment gateway by Qatar Airways

TT BU R E AU

Akbar Al BakerChief Executive OfficerQatar Airways

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and Shaftesbury Hotels together hosted cocktails and dinner in London at the Grand Royale London Hyde Park on November 5, 2012, which sawfriends and well wishers in London for the World Travel Market stream in through the evening. Spirits were high, the food was outstanding, servicegracious and the ambience was warm and cozy, considering the cold weather outside. It was a great social networking evening, enjoyed by one and all.Ramesh Arora (Shaftesbury Hotels) and SanJeet (TravTalk) made the perfect hosts.

Network Talk goes international

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A roaring success in London

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Internet Moguls host the trade royallyMoguls called upon their travel partners to celebrate and thank them for theirsupport in making them a leading digital marketing agency, while also announc-ing fresh slew of initiatives.

ANALYSIS

As the capital city of Indianow evolves from being

a macro to a micro market inthe recent times, emergenceof business within the cityand the NCR has been wit-nessed. One of the areaswhich has now emerged as anew playground for hoteliersis the Shahdara region in EastDelhi. The region will soon behome to at least four brandedluxury hotels, includinginternational and domestichotel players.

Hoteliers in the regionunanimously feel that resi-dents of this area are, to alarge part, affluent businessfamilies. In the absence ofoptions, they had no choicebut to travel to Central andSouth Delhi for business andrecreation. But this businessis now expected to bounceback in the region.

One of the internationalbrands that has opened doorsin the region recently is theEurope-based KempinskiHotels. Re-entering the Indianhospitality market with itspartnership with the Delhi-based Ambience Group, its firstproperty Kempinski AmbienceHotel Delhi cashes in on thevirgin location. According toVella Ramasawmy, GeneralManager, Kempinski AmbienceHotel Delhi, the hotel is bettingbig on the unsaturated marketof Shahdara. “This flagshipluxury property is strategicallylocated in the capital’s mostdeveloped district by moststandards, as released by therecent Census data on houses,household amenities andassets. The hotel is strategicallylocated and is well-connectedto the airport, Metro stationsand prominent entertainment

destinations in Delhi andNoida,” he reveals. The 2010Commonwealth Gameschanged the face of East Delhiand this hotel is going to be anicon that would be part of therise of East Delhi, Ramasawmyadds.

As sheer luxury findsnew grounds, the firstKempinski Hotel in India willhave 480 rooms and suitesencased within two towers, a25,000 sq. ft. pillarless ball-room -- the largest in a five-star deluxe hotel in Indiaaccommodating up to 6,000guests, two swimming poolswith Jacuzzi and water cur-tains, spa with hammamtreatment room, two fitnesscentres, a yoga deck andother facilities, he claims.

Sarovar Hotels has alsoannounced the opening ofPark Plaza in Shahdara CBD(Central Business District).This upscale full service busi-

ness hotel is the company’s11th property in Delhi and NCR and will fill themuch-needed gap for a luxury hotel in East Delhi.Says Siddharth Chaudhry,General Manager, Park PlazaShahdara, “South andCentral Delhi have alreadygot saturated and there is aminimal scope for growth.Gurgaon and Noida have alsobecome more mature mar-kets. Thus, the competitive-ness in terms of rooms drives up the average roomrates (ARRs) in these areas.East Delhi is thus the upcoming option.” The91-key hotel with four F&B outlets is targetting pri-marily corporate travellersfrom the nearby industrialhubs. “There is a huge captive market in East Delhiand Ghaziabad. We expectbusiness visitors from areas in Patparganj andSahibabad,” he adds.

The East Delhi hoteliers feel that with the presence ofnew hotels in the region, F&B, banqueting and MICEbusiness are now bouncing back.

Delhi hotels go East

ME G H A PAU L

There is a bigmarket in EastDelhi andGhaziabad fromwhere we expectbusiness visitors

KempinskiAmbience willbe an icon thatwould be part of the rise ofEast Delhi

Vella RamasawmyGeneral ManagerKempinski Ambience Hotel Delhi

Siddharth ChaudhryGeneral ManagerPark Plaza Shahdara

flexibility and easing out thestress especially in emer-gency situations.”

“Here, web parity willensure mutually beneficialbusiness environment forboth the principles and itsagents. A small chunk of peo-ple that the web infrastruc-ture of principles can supportwill continue to purchaseonline, while the B2B channelwill continue to supply thebulk business. Trade associ-ations including OTOAI arenow joining hands to comeforward and ensure web par-ity. We have received someinitial success in terms of

assurances from our princi-ples and are hopeful thatgoing forward web parity willbe the mutually settlednorm,” he added.

Surely, on the flip side,the online travel options facesstiff competition, in terms ofthe flexibility and service, thatonly the travel trade can offerto its clientele. SubhashVerma, President, ADTOI, isalso quick to highlight theflexibility, support and servicethat the travel agents offerunlike the online traveloptions. “Only in a few cases,one may find online price tobe more competitive. But,mostly after adding varioustaxes, charges, other terms

and conditions; the onlineoptions end up being dearer.Also, there had beeninstances, where various air-lines or hotels put some frac-tion of their inventory onlinethat is 5-10 per cent attractivethan the cost quoted by thetravel agents,” said Verma.

“Such practices areagainst business ethics. Onealso needs to understand thatin most cases, a travellerwishes to avail online pricesalong with offline support,which is not possible. Travelagents should educate theirclients of the various advan-tages and support that travelagents offer by being a facilitator,” he added.

Geared up to combat competitionContd. from page 28

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The first three days of the World Travel Market 2012, the leading global event for thetravel industry, experienced an impressive visitor increase of 4 per cent. The 3-dayevent witnessed 38,735 visitors walk through the doors of ExCeL – London to attendthe event. This compares to 37,331 across the first three days of WTM 2011.

WTM 2012 starts with a thundering applause

Contd. on page 52

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reserves. To ignore this real-ity and to portray all WildlifeTourism as one homoge-neous, benevolent entity ishighly misleading, he adds.

Going forward, the keyto success would be the pub-licly-owned wildlife reservesthat should be accessible tobudget travellers at reason-able costs, even as commer-cial tourism expands out-wards in ever widening cir-cles. Suggesting on a newmodel for the future, the con-servationist points out, “Ihave proposed a model thatis closer to the South Africanmodel of Wildlife Tourism,which industry advocatesnow demand in India. Thismodel includes well-run,properly zoned national parkslike Kruger that benefit largenumbers of less-affluenttourists. These are surround-ed and buffered by anexpanding network of privatereserves catering to visitorswith deeper pockets.”

Highlighting the impor-tance of the Tiger Trust,Anjana Gosain, HonorarySecretary, Tiger Trust says,“Tiger Trust is a nationalorganisation working

towards conservation ofwildlife and its habitat withspecial emphasis on saving wild tigers.” Pinning hopes on the future of tiger and TigerTourism in the country, AmitSankhala, ManagingDirector, Jungle Lodgesfeels, “The present genera-tion of students are thewatchdog for the future oftiger survival.”.

Dr. K Ullas KaranthBiologist

To portray WildlifeTourism as onehomogeneousentity is highlymisleading

The main agenda of hav-ing a representation in

India is to develop the Indianoutbound market forArgentina, educate the traveltrade about the destination,build destination awarenessamong the trade and trav-ellers along with developingmarketing and promotionalactivities. From SouthAmerica, Argentina is thefirst country to have an offi-cial representation in Indiafor tourism and aims to posi-tion itself as a mono-destina-tion for the Indian travellers.

When asked if it’s achallenge or an opportunity,Medha Sampat, Founder,Knack Marketing said,“Promoting a new destinationis India is always a greatopportunity, as it’s exciting toposition a new destination,among the trade and trav-ellers. Argentina has anamazing variety of tourism

attractions to select from(Argentina is the maintourism receptor in SouthAmerica, with 5.8 millionoverseas visitors annually,even surpassing Brail) and wewould like Indians to spendmaximum time in exploringthe country as a mono destination. As a BRIC member, every day, Indiashows the world the sound-ness of its economy and thisevidently translates into thetourism industry.

Around 15 millionIndians travelabroad andArgentina intendsto attract a percent-age of this number.”

Knack Marketing willencourage the travel agentsand tour operators to pro-mote Argentina, assist themin customising and buildingvarious packages for differ-

ent age groups, developingpackages covering variety ofproducts suitable for theIndian market.

Sampat said, “Argentinais exotic and will be posi-tioned in such a way that itbecomes a ‘must visit’ desti-nation it on the map of Indiantravellers. There’s somethingfor everyone…! We will com-mence with the training ofthe trade and then continuewith mono Argentina road-

shows before targetting theend consumer. We are lookingat developing the market witha long-term perspective. Thetrade will be made to experi-ence the destination and FAMtrips will be organised.”

Knack Marketing repre-sented INPROTUR Argentinaearly this year in India forvarious travel trade fairs and exhibitions. Sampatinformed that the destinationhas recorded a growth ofalmost five per cent betweenJanuary – June 2012 as com-pared to the same period in2011 which shows theimpact of bringingArgentinean travel suppliersand communicating withIndian travel trade. She adds,“Indeed, the new air connec-tions to Argentina (throughSouth African Airways, Qatar Airways and Emirates)will make it a more attractivedestination for Indiantourists who want to visit the country.”

Understanding the potential of Indian outbound tourism sector, TheNational Institute of Tourism Promotion (INPROTUR) – Argentina appointedMumbai-based Knack Marketing as their official representative in India.

Argentina calls all Indians

AN I TA JA I N

Medha SampatFounder Knack Marketing

Seminar on Tiger TourismContd. from page 3

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A big time affair

Contd. on page 54

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WTM 2012: A building block for business

Contd. on page 56

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Visitors up by 4% for the first 3 days

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DECEMBER 20125 Chennai Canadian Tourism Commission

Agents Training Programme 6-9 Turkey Travel Turkey Izmir Tourism

Fair & Conference7-9 Lucknow India Travel Mart7-9 Guwahati Holiday Expo 8-16 Paris Salon Piscine & Spa10-12 Guangzhou Guangzhou International Hotel

Equipments & SuppliesExhibition

12 Gurgaon World Travel Awards Grand Final 2012

12-13 Brussels Brussels Travel Expo13-15 Dubai Dubai International

Outdoor Show19 Hyderabad Canadian Tourism Commission

Agents Training Programme20 Kolkata Canadian Tourism Commission

Agents Training Programme

JANUARY 20134-6 Chennai Travel & Tourism Fair8-13 Gujarat International Travel Tourism &

Hospitality Expo9 Coimbatore Tourism Authority of Thailand’s

B2B Event11 Mangalore Tourism Authority of Thailand’s

B2B Event11-13 Bengaluru Travel & Tourism Fair14 Pune Tourism Authority of Thailand’s

B2B Event16-17 New Delhi FICCI’s Conclave on Investment

in Tourism Infrastructure 201316-18 New Delhi Tourism Malaysia’s Roadshow18-20 Kochi India International Travel

Mart Cochin19 Kolkata Tourism Malaysia’s Roadshow20-22 Guwahati ATOAI’s Annual Convention21 Mumbai Tourism Malaysia’s Roadshow21 Mumbai Tourism Fiji’s Roadshow22 Ahmedabad Tourism Fiji’s Roadshow23 Kolkata Tourism Fiji’s Roadshow23 Chennai Tourism Malaysia’s Roadshow24 New Delhi Tourism Fiji’s Roadshow24-27 Singapore Zak Salaam India Tourism

Expo - Singapore25-27 Switzerland Travel Expo25-27 Coimbatore Holiday Expo 25-27 Nagpur India International

Travel Exhibition25-27 Germany Leisure Travel Market30-3 Spain Fitur

5 Mumbai Austrian National TouristOffice’s B2B Event

6 Chennai Austrian National TouristOffice’s B2B Event

7 New Delhi Austrian National TouristOffice’s B2B Event

12 Ahmedabad Tourism Philippines’ Roadshow13 Kolkata Tourism Philippines’ Roadshow22 Ahmedabad MGTO’s Trade Workshop22 Mumbai Canadian Tourism Commission

Agents Training Programme25 Delhi Canadian Tourism Commission

Agents Training Programme25-26 New Delhi ATOUT France’s Paris

Promotion27-1 Mumbai ATOUT France’s Paris

Promotion27- 2 Jaipur Canadian Tourism Commission’s

Focus Canada India

FEBRUARY 2013

Emerging Travel andTourism Markets: TheBRICS

The emerging marketsof Brazil, Russia, India, Chinaand South Africa have longbeen highlighted as thefuture powerhouses of thetravel and tourism industry.In fact, the BRICS have fea-tured heavily in all threeWorld Travel Market IndustryReports. In the 2010 report,almost half (47%) of theindustry saw the BRICnations (minus South Africaat that stage) as one of thebiggest growth opportunities

until 2014, with almost onein three (28.6%) seeing themas the single biggest oppor-tunity over the same period.Last year, almost two-thirds(65%) of the industry viewedSouth Africa as important asthe other BRIC markets, afterit was admitted to the group.

Outbound tourism fromthe BRICS

More than half (53%) ofthose polled ranked China aseither the most important orsecond most important mar-ket for outbound tourists.More than a quarter (26%)voted China the most impor-tant of the five countries for

outbound tourists, with a fur-ther 27% placing it as thesecond most important.Russia isn’t too far behindwith almost half (48%) votingit as the most important orsecond most important mar-ket, with an even 24% splitfor both positions. Indiapolled 36% for the top twopositions, however with only15% voting it the numberone position for outboundtourists.

Inbound tourism to theBRICs

More than half (53%)voted China as the most orsecond most important des-

tination for inbound tourismto the country, with 28% put-ting it in first place and 26%in second position. China issome way in front of theother BRICS nations regard-ing inbound tourism withBrazil in second place on42%, 24% for the first spotand 18% for second place.Russia and India follow inthird and fourth place with37% and 36% respectively.Almost a fifth (18%) votedRussia as the top destinationfor inbound tourism with 19% placing it second.India had 15% voting in the top spot and 21% in second place.

WTM surveyed its key exhibitors and senior Meridian Club buyers to discoverthe central issues for the industry. The findings form the backbone for theWorld Travel Market 2012 Industry Report. Excerpts:

BRICS: Future powerhouse of tourism

TT BU R E AU

Jeev Milkha Singh announced that he ishosting the ‘Shubhkamna Champions’,a new tournament featuring the strongeststar cast of the Indian champion golfersfrom December 21 – 23 at the 18 holepar 72, Noida Golf Club. Turkish Airlineswhich recently hosted the TurkishAirlines World Golf Final in Antalya fea-turing Tiger Woods and Rory Mcilroy isthe airline par tner while The Suryaawhich is located close to Noida is theofficial hotel partner of the tournament.The tournament has been promoted andmarketed by RN Golf Management,headed by former Asian Games GoldMedallist in golf, Rishi Narain.

The Singapore TourismBoard launched its secondphase of marketing that is spe-cially customised for the Indianmarket highlighting the newtourism offerings to entice theIndian travellers to visit orrevisit Singapore.

‘Singapore – The HolidayYou Take Home With You’ cam-paign showcases its recentopenings like Gardens By TheBay, Marina Bay Cruise Centre,Marina Life Park at the ResortsWorld Sentosa and River Safari.The campaign targets theleisure travellers from Indiaand is partnered by ThomasCook, Mercury Travels,MakeMyTrip and Kuoni India.Singapore received 13.2 mil-lion tourist arrivals in 2011 and

targets to receive 14.5 millionin 2012. It received 22.33 bil-lion tourism receipts in 2011out of which India accountedfor 5 per cent. With 189 flightsper week to Singapore from 11cities across India, Singaporeis literally rolling out the redcarpet for India. The latestaddition of Silk Air connectivityfrom Vizag to Singapore hasalso tremendously addedinbound traffic to the countryfrom India. India is the largestforeign source market forcruises in Singapore and withthe opening of Marina BayCruise Centre, SingaporeTourism hopes to have moreIndians cruising on its shores.

“India is a huge and impor-tant market for us.

We have received a 6 per cent growth from India in the firstquarter of 2012.India is fifth on our tourist arrivalslist and Indians arethe third highestspenders inSingapore.

We hope to attract manymore Indians and repeat touriststhrough our new marketingcampaign. The reason we part-nered with the four travelagents is because they have ahuge client base and also have

a pan India presence. We arehowever looking at workingwith other Indian travel agentsto drive customer interest andconnect with the Indian trav-ellers to make their trips toSingapore,” says Chang CheePey, Executive Director, SouthAsia, Middle East and Africa,Singapore Tourism Board.

Chang Chee PeyExecutive DirectorSouth Asia, Middle East andAfrica, Singapore Tourism Board

Singapore opens new tourism spots

‘Champions of Indian Golf’

For more information, contact us at: talk@ddppl.com

The total domestic pas-sengers carried by thescheduled domestic air-lines in the month ofOctober 2012 were45.55 lakh. The totaldomestic passengerscarried by the scheduleddomestic airlines in themonth of September2012 were 40.18 lakh

QUICK READ

FAMILY ALBUM

Star Cruises hosted a gala night withawards function where they honoured several agents and tourism boards whohave helped them become a successfulbrand in India. The event also saw the topmanagement of Star Cruises interactingwith the Indian tour operators and members of the tourism boards.

‘Star’ honours starry performance

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Sandie Dawe, Chief Executive Officer, Visit Britain says, “I am Scottishand was born and brought up in Sri Lanka. I like to swim and do yoga thathelps me rejuvenate. I was very active in sports sometimes back.” He addsthat he loves to travel, although it’s most often work-related. “In India, if Ihave a choice, I will love to explore Tamil Nadu and spend quality time atlesser known tourist attractions, in addition to going on the golden Triangletour,” he says.

Sandie DaweChief Executive OfficerVisit Britain

Riaz Munshi, Vice President, OTOAI, is a fitness freak. “I hit the gym reg-ularly to stay fit. I used to be a sports fanatic during my college days andplayed cricket every week. However, now I only get time to watch it on thetelevision set,” he chuckles.

A true outbound specialist, Munshi loves travelling to the Far East and NewZealand. “New Zealand has a lot of scope for adventure activities. This makesit one of my favourite places. I have done sky diving there as well,” he adds.

Riaz MunshiVice PresidentOTOAI

Catherine OdenDirectorATOUT France India

Jaipur Marriott JaipurRohit Dar is the new General Manager for Jaipur Marriott. A sea-

soned hotelier, he started his career with theOberoi Hotels in 1990. Spanning his career,

he has worked with several hotels includ-ing The Oberoi, New Delhi; Trident,Cochin; The Oberoi Rajvilas, Jaipur andImperial Hotel, New Delhi. He has alsoheld the position of General Manager atthe Oakwood Premier Prestige, Bengaluru.

Dar holds a Post Graduate Diploma in HotelManagement from Oberoi School of Hotel

Management and completed hisBachelor’s Degree in BusinessStudies from Delhi University.

The Indian Hotels Company LimitedMumbaiCyrus P Mistry is the new appointed Chairman Designate of

The Indian Hotels Company Limited and will takeover as the Chairman of the company in

December 2012. Mistry has been aDirector of Tata Sons Limited since 2006and he was appointed as the DeputyChairman of Tata Sons Limited inNovember 2011. He joined the board ofShapoorji Pallonji & Co as director in 1991

and was appointed Managing Directorof the Shapoorji Pallonji

Group in 1994.

International Congress andConvention AssociationHyderabad

Jaideep Khanna is appointed as the newChairperson of International Congress andConvention Association (ICCA). He is also theGeneral Manager - Sales Marketing &Distribution for the Hyderabad International

Convention Centre. Khanna is confident thatwith the help of the associa-

tion, he and his team willbe able to deliver instant

access to a range of research, salesand marketingopportunities.

Talking People is a special dedicated corner, created as a sounding board for who’s who of the Indian and International travel industry. With Talking People, it is our endeavour to bring you face-to-face with people.

Contributed by: Vivek Sethi, Anita Jain & Megha Paul

Catherine Oden, Director, ATOUT France India loves reading, travelling, spas and Indian thalis. She also loves experimenting withdifferent cuisines. Oden is a person whose favourite author is the onethat plays with emotions, takes her to unusual places and situationsand feeds her with meaningful information. Her perfect evening canbe defined with few hours of relaxing spa, fun time with friends anda glass of elegant wine (or a good beer depending on the mood andthe company). Talking about her love for books, she says, “My differentmissions have taken me to different countries and each time, I try toread a lot about the country I live in or about the next one that I willdiscover. From history to art, from religion to gastronomy to novelspertaining to the countries I have been to... along with music andfilms. My home has become a fairly sophisticated world tourist boardcum book/music/film library.”

Savannah SinclairsBengaluruSwajib Chatterjee has been appointed as the new GeneralManager of Savannah Sinclairs – Bengaluru. In his over 16 yearof association with the hospitality industryin different areas, his last assignmentwas with Radisson Blu, Ranchi asExecutive Assistant Manager. Prior tothat, he worked as a Food and BeverageManager at Radisson Blu, Ranchi. Hecompleted his Hotel Management fromInstitute of Hotel Management CateringTechnology and Applied Nutrition,Bhubaneswar (Under NationalCouncil, PUSA, New Delhi).

DJ Group New DelhiAkhil Mathur has recently been appointed as the Vice President– Hospitality of the DJ Group, New Delhi. His last assignment wasas the Director of Business Development atHilton New Delhi, Janakpuri. With an experi-ence track record spanning more than 23years in the hospitality industry, Mathur hasheld senior assignments with distinguishedinternational brands such as Le Meridien,Leela, Hyatt Regency and Holiday Inn CrownePlaza. In his present profile, his primary man-date is to develop, plan, grow andmanage the overall CorporateBusiness domain of DJGroup’s Hospitality Division.

Bengaluru Marriott Hotel WhitefieldBengaluruMatthew Cooper is appointed as the new General Manager ofBengaluru Marriott Hotel Whitefield that is set toopen in January 2013. In this new profile, hewill be responsible for the operational setup and steering of the overall manage-ment of the hotel. Prior to this assign-ment, Cooper was the General Managerof Cour tyard by Marriott, Gurgaon,where he was responsible for oversee-ing the entire operations and businessof the hotel right from its pre-opening stages. He hasbeen a part of Marriottfor the last 14 years.

The Raintree Hotel Anna SalaiChennaiPiyush Tyagi joins The Raintree Hotel Anna Salai Chennai as

the new Executive Assistant Manager. He hasa strong hotel experience of 13 years and

has played an important role at seniorleadership positions in couple of hi-endpre-openings. Tyagi has done his grad-uation from IHM, Mumbai and gotselected by Taj Hotels and worked in

various capacities in Taj for close to 9years in Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and

Jaipur. After which he movedto Ista Hotels followingWesting Hotels.

Chapman FreebornDelhiSnigdha Roy has joined Chapman Freeborn as Business

Development Manager – Passenger in India.In this present profile, she will be work-

ing with existing and potential clientsas well as tap the opportunity to growbusiness in new and existing markets.Roy comes with over four years ofexperience working in marketing andsales and for two years has spe-cialised within the aviation and charter

market. Her previous role was asBusiness Development

Manager for BafnaAviation India.

Holiday Inn CochinKochiJoji K Joshua has been appointed as the new Executive Chef

at Holiday Inn Cochin. He is an internationallyreputed chef with more than 34 years of

culinary art and hospitality industry expe-rience in luxury hotels across India andMiddle East. A native of Kerala and amulti-linguist, Joji has been with theIntercontinental Hotels Group since the

past 26 years. Prior to this profile, he wasthe Executive Chef in Riyadh Conference

Palace of InterContinental HotelsGroup since 1992.

HIGHLIGHT

Postal Reg. No.: DL(ND)-11/6044/2012-13-14; WPP No.: U(C)-178/2012-14 for posting on 1st-2nd and 15th-16th

of the same month at New Delhi P.S.O., RNI No.: 53492/91Date of Publication:30-11-2012

ITQ has invested heavilyin research and devel-

opment of the productsthat will make their travelpartners conduct businesson more remunerativeterms in near future. Infact, they have a refreshedapproach that will create new benchmarks,increase its foot print andconquer new businessbeyond air content. Hereare the exclusive excerpts:

As per JB Singh, President and CEO, InterGlobe Technology Quotient (ITQ), the hospitality industry is likely to witness a dynamic change in operations with hospitalityplayers investing in new ideas and technologies to drive their revenue and services.

ITQ’s advanced technology cuts costs

VI V E K SE T H I

Hospitality in India

In the last couple ofyears, the growth in the num-ber of travellers in India hasbeen dominated by thedomestic traveller, therebyincreasing the customer’spropensity to spend on hotelreservations and other ancil-lary services. The hospitalityindustry is growing up to wit-ness a shift in the roomrequirements by hotels. Witha projected increase of 937million travellers over thenext ten years, a lot is neededto support the growing

demand of tourism in thecountry. One such require-ment is the number of hotelrooms; India will need, in thenext couple of years.

According to a research,India would need roundly1,88,500 additional hotelrooms by 2021. Also, withthe growing access to majorTier-II and Tier-III cities, alot of hotel chains are explor-ing opportunities to buildproperties and deliver facili-ties and services to cater tolocal residential demand andgenerate major proportion of

their revenues. The hospi-tality industry is likely to wit-ness a dynamic change inoperations with more andmore hospitality playersinvesting in new ideas andtechnologies to drive theirrevenues and services.Advancement in technologywould not only help hotels inestimating the returns oneach investment therebyreducing the cost of opera-tions but will also help inattracting new business andensuring continued businesswith existing clients.

In most cases, the choiceof accommodation in hotels isdictated by the purpose of thetravellers, which could varyfrom business to personal andleisure travel. There is anothercategory of travellers that pre-fer to stay in cottages, inns andheritage homes where home-owners have converted theirabodes to hotels that not only

offer bed and breakfast serv-ices to customers but alsocater to their need for a non-commercial stay.

Such properties usuallyare not accessible to customersthrough the typical travelagents but their services aremade known through word-of-mouth or customer’s priorexperiences. However, in the

long run, it is expected thatsuch properties will also alignthemselves according to thetechnological advancementsin future and the need to reach out to a wider base oftravellers.

Consumer behaviour

The hospitality sectoroperates on a highly dynamic business modeland the major challengefaced by this sector is thefast changing consumerhabits and attitude. With the evolution of the globalmarket, consumer demandsand expectations areincreasing rapidly. The needof the hour is not only toattract new customers but to concentrate onretaining existing ones.

Another challenge that remains untapped bymost hospitality players isthe absence of a structuredCRM system. The lack of astructured customer basenot only hampers the ability of the hotel to providequality services to their customers but also keep the management cluelessabout what competitors are doing.

Travelport has beeninstrumental in providingtechnologies that haveenabled our trade partners,to promote richer contentand reduce their cost of doingbusiness. With a resilient andsuccessful business model inplace since the last five years,Travelport has invested overUS$ 450 million in R&D toprovide solutions that meetthe business needs of ourtravel partners and reducetheir overall cost of revenue.Some of the agent-friendly

products such as TravelportViewTrip and TravelportUniversal API have alreadybeen rolled out in other mar-kets and have generatedgreat response.

Travelport UniversalAPI offers wide-openaccess to comprehensiveGDS travel contentworldwide, expansivecontent from low-costcarrier’s worldwide anddirect connections tohigh-speed rail providers.Travelport ViewTripMobile delivers time crit-ical information andother valuable tools toenable travellers to befully aware and in controlof their travel arrange-ments at any time.

JB SinghPresident and CEO, InterGlobe Technology Quotient

Changing demand dynamics

Present investments in future

Travelport is in a completely different place, emphasising its next-generation marketing, retailing and distribution platform and itsability to provide new ways to sell more and different content than waspreviously possible in the travel distribution channel.

- Phocuswright 2011