Tour operators plan new concepts for autumn, winter breaks

Even as the summer vacations draw to a close, travel agencies are already planning to offer innovative plans for the autumn and winter breaks. Tour operators are pinning their hopes on low-cost carrier Indigo starting international flights connecting Delhi and Mumbai to Thailand, Singapore and Dubai in September.

“The Indian customer is evolving and is looking at novel experiences such as soft adventures, safaris and eco-tourism, self-drive itineraries, spa breaks and in-depth and longer stays at single destinations”, said Madhav Pai, chief operating officer, (leisure travel-outbound), Thomas Cook India. Today, people opt for multiple holidays in a year, compared to the earlier trend of a single vacation in two to three years. Pai attributed this trend to a shift in the traditional Indian psyche of saving money for future.

While summers are about the long stays, autumn and winters bring in more volumes for travel agencies. Yatra.com is targeting a 50 per cent growth in demand for the holiday season starting October. MakeMyTrip plans to promote Phuket, Bali, Mauritius and Maldives as special winter destinations, Andaman, Kashmir, Goa, the Northeast and Kerala would be promoted as domestic destinations. Thomas Cook plans to promote Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Kenya as international attractions and the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra and Jaipur) and Rajasthan as domestic ones.

Besides the interesting destinations, companies are also planning innovative ways to tap the growing demand. Yatra.com plans to come up with the concept of 'fly and stay' for destinations like Goa. This would be a combination of travel and accommodation and would help people explore the destinations on their own, without a tour guide.

During the summer, MakeMyTrip introduced chartered flights to Phuket and Bhutan. “Both have done exceptionally well. Last year, a similar experiment with Maldives was also a success. If more flight capacity is added, Indians would lap it up”, said Keyur Joshi, chief operating officer, MakeMyTrip.

Easygo1.com, another online travel platform, had interesting names for their outbound packages like Hong Kong Hungama, Dazzling Dubai and Magic Maldives. Cox and Kings came out with the concept of 'instant holidays'. Explaining the concept, Karan Anand, head (relationships), Cox and Kings, said, “We identified destinations that Indians frequent and customised an all-inclusive package that comprised airfare, hotels and sightseeing.” In the international market the destinations we promoted were Thailand, Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong, while in India, the destinations were Goa, Manali, Coorg and Corbett.

Even as outbound travel growth is pegged at 25 per cent, against 35 per cent in the domestic segment, this trend could well change as low-cost carriers offer international flights. “There is already a surge in the bookings of IndiGo international flight for September and October. We are planning to come up with holiday offers exclusively for these destinations, which are connected by low-cost carriers,” said Pratik Mazumder, head (marketing and strategic alliance), Yatra.com.

On low-cost airlines, Thomas Cook's Pai said, “The attractive price points would allow us to create all-inclusive tour packages for the price-sensitive volume markets”. The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) has its plans in place for inbound travel in the autumn and winter seasons to draw foreign tourists from October to December. It is organising road shows and 'Know India' seminars in Geneva, Paris and New York in August. “A team of 20-25 tour operators, along with the members of the tourism ministry would meet foreign officials and local tour operators to educate them about India as a tourist destination Rs , said Gour Kanjilal, executive director, IATO.