PANJIM: Goan’s are travelling abroad in increasing numbers. Jatinder Paul Singh, Sr VP and Head – Sales and Distribution Leisure Travel (Outbound), Thomas Cook (India) Ltd and Shibani Phadkar, Sr VP and Head – Leisure Travel Outbound, products, Contracting, Operations and Tour Management, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd spoke to the Herald about this trend.
Herald: Can you give me an overall understanding of what is the business in outbound?
Shibani: Thailand still remains to be the favourite destination amongst the Indians, but now it is more popular for weekend getaways. Recently we get more requests for experiential travel. The clients now want to build their own itinerary for their travel.
Herald: What is the kind of clientele you get from Goa?
Shibani: Around 22% of the clients from Goa actually want to see and understand the essence of the place they are visiting rather than just touching upon the place. From Goa we get clients who either prefer travelling in a group or a Free Independent Traveller. The 18-35 year age group people usually prefer either backpacking around the place or they stay in hostels.
Herald: Any idea of the number of people who go out from Goa?
Singh: Goa contributes almost 8% of the total traffic from India and it is increasing year on.
Herald: What is the growth like for outbound business?
Singh: We have experienced a growth of around 18%. People now are keen to get the local flavour. They want to experience what the local essence of the travel.
Herald: But do many people opt for local food and local flavour?
Singh: It’s a time of selfies and ‘been there, done that’. So people want to try something new and different. Be it a tree top house in South-France or an igloo in Norway, they are open to new things trying out the local delicacies.
Herald: What is the plan for this year?
Singh: For 2015 we are finding new travel avenues. We are concentrating a lot on education travel, because we at Thomas Cook believe that the youth is the future and that, they need to evolve in to a world citizen. We are also getting a lot of requests from people who want to have unique experiences. We have people who want to go to Milan or Paris to watch the fashion shows. We also have various fashion institutes from India who go there for an experience. We are also in the process of opening up of a new market for student exchange programmes. We are currently in talks with international schools to take students abroad.
We are also looking at strengthening the youth segment in the age group – of 18-35 years, who want to go to new places, have a good time but at an economical price. We have good packages wherein they can enjoy, but at an economical rate.
For the Independence weekend we have a package for places like Thailand, Singapore and Dubai.
Herald: What is the target for this year?
Singh: We usually have a target of around 70% turnover in the first half of the season. This year fortunately we had an extended season and we saw people travelling in July-August-September as well.
Herald: Any particular reason for this?
Singh: Firstly because of elections. Secondly, due to extended weekends in these months, people are making plans for destinations which have visa-on-arrival facility. We also have started the EMI holidays wherein you have packages starting from Rs 70,000 per couple for destinations like Thailand and they have to swipe their credit card and select their payment option (12, 9 and 6 months). Depending on the bank, an interest of 6-8% is charged.
Herald: How many people from Goa opt for this EMI holiday facility?
Singh: It is in a very early stage right now. We just launched this 2 months back, so we still have to see the numbers.
