Cox & Kings ties up with Canadian firm for adventure tours

To grow outbound tour business by 25%

Leisure tour operator Cox & Kings has tied up a Canada based tour operator diversifying its product offering. On Thursday Cox & Kings and its online travel site Ezeego1 announced a partnership with G Adventures which specialises in adventure tours and promotes sustainable tourism across various markets.

Outbound tours contribute 65% to its leisure travel business and new alliance will help to grow it further. "We want to grow the market for adventure tours,'' said Karan Anand, head-relationships of Cox & Kings. Outbound tour business grew 25% last year and the company is expecting a higher growth in 2014. "We are looking at different ways to engage the customers,'' said Neelu Singh, chief operating officer of Ezeego1.

The tie up would allow the Cox & Kings to sell adventure trips like cycling tours in Vietnam, sailing in Thailand, hiking tours in Peru or Tanzania and trips to Antarctica. The demand for adventure tours in India is limited and most tour operators do not design packages in this segment factoring low customer interest and cost factor.

But Bruce Poon Tip, founder of G Adventures said there was a huge potential in Indian market. His company already sells packages in India to tourists in UK, Europe, Canada and Australia but will now sell tours to Indian customers.

"India is an exciting and dynamic market with huge potential for G Adventures. It is experiencing rapid growth in terms of outbound tourism and with global demand for adventure travel also continuing to grow now is the perfect time to introduce it as a new way to see the world,'' he said.