Sky is the limit for customised holidays

Demand from the new Indian traveller are forcing travel operators to overahul product designs

The new Indian traveller with ever-changing holiday ideas are forcing tour operators to overhaul their product designs. From offering pre-designed holiday products, tour operators are now moving to drafting supremely personalised and customer-specific holidays, in addition to hunting for newer destinations.

Largely these travellers are in the free independent traveller (FIT) segment which is growing 30-35% year-on-year for most tour operators.

"Regular sightseeing has been replaced with experiences that one can gain. This is being fuelled by a combination of awareness and social media. People want to do cool and different things. So there is a shift from, say, going to 10 destinations in 10 days to how-do-I-get value. Mono destinations are in and travellers are coming to us with a set of experiences that they want delivered," said Abraham Alapatt, Chief Innovation Officer, Head, Marketing & Customer Service at Thomas Cook India Limited.

In this change, social media is playing an important role with operators having devised their own way of reaching out to the travelling community with descriptions of attractions and destinations. The customer approaches tour operators after doing his own research. He later approaches the operator for suggestions on various itineraries, which are then customized as per their requirements.

"As a tour operator we need to know the product and destination in detail. We need to keep ourselves aware of all the events. And since the consumers are well researched we need to know all about the rates offered by hotels and travel agents in any given destination," said Neelu Samant, Director of Quantum Travels.

Tour companies are also merging various products to create one product for travellers. For instance, in many cases, operators are booking only tickets for travellers for any given destination. Accommodation and itinerary are being devised by individually the travellers. This way they get the benefit of group ticket booking through the operator while they save to spend on night life, shopping, street food, sightseeing, theatre etc.

Besides, with the out-of-the-box holiday ideas of travellers, operators say they now need to seek special permissions and make relevant arrangements for the customers to fulfill their demands. Earlier this year Cox & Kings tied up with Canadian tour operator G Adventures to increase its offering for the FIT segment. The tie up allows Cox & Kings to market new destinations, specialised holidays and adventure trips across the world.

For Cox & Kings, the FIT segment is a vast one and is growing by approximately 30% year-on-year. Close to 95% of its India revenue comes from leisure, says Karan Anand-Head, Relationships, Cox & Kings.

Though tour operators did not reveal specific charges for customization, it could cost up to 10-20% more than an average packaged tour as it means working with tourism boards in more detail and seeking their help in organizing holidays. In many cases, charges are not necessarily high as backpackers want to stick to their budgets.

Tour operators are also setting up websites and partnering with foreign companies to tap business from travellers who plan their own foreign trips.

"More and more agencies are also creating their own web sites for their customers offering bookings and information on their own on-line platform. By creating websites agents are facilitating customer needs of research and sale," said Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, Outbound Tour Operators Association Of India.

Favourite destinations with the FIT segment are Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Turkey, Switzerland and UK.

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