Specialising and creating travel demand where none exists
Subhash Motwani, Founder and Director of Namaste Tourism, has been in the travel trade for over 34 years, combining a blend of experiences. Having visited over fifty countries, Subhash ensures every bespoke itinerary is unique and authentic, as he believes in encouraging the discerning traveller to explore the world experientially. Excerpts from the interview with Subhash… With India resuming its scheduled international flights, how excited are you?
The resumption of scheduled international flights augurs well for the tourism industry. However, the challenges will be the efficient management in terms of flight schedules, frequency, pricing, and how the demand outlook will be visà-vis supply. It appears that there will be greater demand than inventory available. We do not expect the airfares to go down phenomenally, also considering the rising fuel prices with the Ukraine-Russia crisis. Another challenge is to have efficient personnel at airports to handle pre-COVID level crowds, and here too, we will see at least for a few months, the reporting times at airports will be longer. It’s fantastic that scheduled flights have restarted, although one has to be ready to face the harsh reality as highlighted.
With outbound travel opening up, how will you be optimising your efforts to unlock the potential of India’s leisure and business travellers?
With changing times, we have to change our concept of dealing with our clients as we are experts in our domain. Specialisation is the key. Given our product knowledge and expertise, especially in offbeat destinations and outof-the-box ideas, we are approached by several retail agents too for a few offbeat ideas. Even in the limited B2B space that we are into for our highly specialised destinations, we will only be assisting agents against payment of a nominal fee, which could be subsequently adjusted in bookings. Also, we have reviewed our core strength, itinerary planning. We assist clients in visa consulting and flight tickets only if they plan their itineraries and holidays with us. Free advice is passé and specialisation is in.
Which are some of the destinations that you are currently promoting with your trade partners?
Our tagline has been “Exploring places
like never before.” We have always been an experiential-centric company and not destination centric in our approach. Destinations vary based on seasonality, client choices for experiences, budgets, and several other variables. Let us take France as an example; in addition to Paris, we would focus on the Occitanie region and its beautiful villages. For those who are into spa experiences - affordable, world-class spas are available in Central Europe - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, to name a few. In Morocco, one can offer self-drive experiences to clients or offer culinary and historical experiences in Israel. A wildlife enthusiast may want to explore wildlife in Kenya or Tanzania, South Africa or ZimZam (Zimbabwe Zambia) combo, Botswana or even Namibia. It all depends if it is the client’s first safari or whether the client wants to include varied experiences - such as exploring the Big 5 of the ocean. That is why we distinguish ourselves from others and call ourselves ELIC (Experiential and Luxury Itinerary Curators). We are not travel agents. We are in the business of match-making, matching the right product portfolio to a client’s needs to ensure that we exceed clients’ expectations.
Are you working out new and attractive packages, to entice Indian travellers? What new attractions and experiences have come up at some of your destinations?
We wish to distinguish ourselves as an organisation that creates demand where none exists. There are some stunningly unknown places in proximity to major cities that many people are unaware of. In Asia, our focus will be on the Indo-China circuit as the Far East sells on its own. In the Australia Pacific region - Australia has amazing experiences to offer across its seven states, South Africa has amazing train journeys - Limpopo, Kwa Zulu Natal province along with the North West could offer several exciting choices along with Eastern and Western Cape, Gauteng and the Mpumalanga Region. Europe is rich in culture, cuisine, wine, and history. If clients want to explore the WWII story trail - we can offer Berlin to Warsaw and take clients to locations that have been part of WWII history. South America has more to offer beyond Machu Picchu in Peru, which is a must-visit. Central America has exciting culture, stunning landscapes, and self-driving holidays covering the longest road trip in the world, the Pan American Highway starting from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska and ending in Ushuaia - the southernmost city in the world, can be broken into segments and offered to driving enthusiasts.
We have been an official travel partner of the BMW Berlin Marathon and we will be taking a few runners to run the marathon later this year, followed by some exciting post tours to offer. In 2023, we plan to include a few more exciting runs across the world. From Svalbard and Greenland in the North to Antarctica in the south, the world is waiting to be explored experientially and we are geared up for it.