Rail Europe relies heavily on trade
Eurail sells tickets through five distributors one of which is Rail Europe. According to Simone Ruf, Deputy CCO & VP Marketing and Business Development, Rail Europe, almost 85-90 per cent of sales for Rail Europe takes place through the trade channels and its GSAs. “This is why we will continue to invest in the travel trade in India, which is an important market for us. Trade will continue to be our primary focus and we will persistently support and train them,” she says.
For this year, Rail Europe will have some new high-speed lines opening up, including the Paris-Bordeaux line that will save an hour. This will be launched on July 7, 2017, but sales will start from March 15, 2017. The rail company is thinking of co-promoting this along with Atout France office in India. “We work quiet a bit with both France and Switzerland tourism boards in India and both continue to be very popular, along with London, Italy and Spain,” Ruf adds.
However, it has no plans to expand its distribution network which stands at 10 GSAs India-wide today. “We believe we already get business from smaller towns through the metro GSAs. Ottila will go live in Indore from March 2017. We also have a website and we have agents all the way from Guwahati to Haridwar,” she says.