Getting a strong foothold on outbound business again
With the pandemic showing signs of waning, 2022 is anticipated as a turnaround year for outbound tourism, and now stakeholders are banking on the burgeoning Indian outbound market. Also, the resumption of scheduled international flights to and from India comes as a huge respite for players in outbound travel after a break of two years. There is a strong pent-up demand for international travel in India, and many destinations are looking forward to welcoming Indian visitors back safely and responsibly. To get the hang of the current situation, TTJ interacts with a few outbound DMCs to get their views on the same.
Post the double vaccination of a large portion of the populace and the almost minuscule rate of infection, the resumption of international flights was a much-awaited action by the industry and it couldn’t have come at a better time at the start of the summer season. The world is doing away with restrictive curbs and testing protocols. People are itching to formalise their travel plans, normalisation of flight schedules should now translate into lower airfares and enhanced capacity. The outbound DMCs are optimistic and gunning to go.
K.D. Singh, Founder and President, TravelBullz, says, “As a DMC, we are focusing on leisure travellers and MICE group movements out of India and into Thailand, Singapore, Maldives and Dubai. We have also been working on our dynamic packaging booking engine, which is a game-changer, as far as the booking experience of the travel agents and tour operators is concerned and we look forward to leveraging the user interface to meet last-minute demand. As a marketplace and aggregator for hotel bookings around the world, we now have over 300000 hotels in our system.”
TravelBullz has already been engaging with the travel trade through various initiatives such as the Indian Travel League (ITL), the Amazing Thailand Grand Sale, roadshows, and participation in trade fairs. Soon they will be carrying out other marketing engagements like in the pre-pandemic days. They would now like to reach out to their partners across India for many purposes.
“For TravelBullz, it is ‘business as usual’ and back to pre-pandemic days. We will soon launch a major initiative for our customers in collaboration with the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Themed packages, such as Party in Thailand, workcation/staycation in Thailand, Family Offers, and Honeymoon Offers, will be available soon,” informs Singh.
Prashant Yadav, CEO, Liberty India, senses that there is already a massive surge in clients’ travel needs. However, he advises caution in business, as the number of requests is bursting through the roof. According to him, many clients are simply shopping around. With a shortage of
workforce in India and worldwide in tourism, one needs to be very careful of what they pick up for business.
“One really doesn’t need to unlock the tourism potential, and it’s as good as handling a dam which has just burst. The only way to rationalise is to pick and choose what you and your teams can handle and deliver to the client’s expectations. On-ground knowledge of what’s operational and in which part of the world and at what prices are paramount now as all learnings of pre-pandemic prices are more or less obsolete. Almost all businesses, aside from hotels, are operating as usual as in the pre-pandemic days,” opines Prashant.
Regarding some of the destinations they are currently promoting, Prashant shares, “It depends on where the flights, visas are easy and COVID protocols are easiest. Across Europe, there are still doubts and clarifications, while new situations are still evolving due to which travel planning is still tentative.”
Liberty India utilised the last year to create and re-sharp their pre-pandemic offerings. However, for Prashant, one needs to offer firmness of travel plans to the clients, reduce the “tentative feelings” in their minds, and reassure them to confirm their travel plans.
Presently, they are not working on any physical campaigns for their promotions. They rely on virtual interaction, which has become the entire meeting ecosystem now and is widely used across the globe.
Rohit Shorey, Founder and CEO, Kazin DMC, is very excited about the developments but with a touch of caution, “With new strains of virus lurking in the corners, I hope we don’t head for another lockdown, although it is an unlikely scenario. Airlines are cautiously increasing their schedule, which means flight tickets will remain expensive for the next few months. COVID protocols for some countries still remain confusing, hence detrimental to travel. 2022 will remain a year of choppy waters, but I guess the worst is behind us.”
He further adds, “India was and will continue to remain a major source market for many international destinations, especially those with direct flights of 4-5 hours. We will invest more in social media marketing activities in order to reach our target audience. We will also continue to educate the channel partners about our destinations by organising FAM trips, one-on-one meetings and participation in BSM programs.
Kazin continues to be very focused on its destinations and area of expertise. Rohit explains, “Kazakhstan will remain our key product with 90 per cent focus, followed closely by Belarus. We don’t intend to aggressively expand our portfolio anytime soon but instead tap new markets such as GCC to sell our destinations, after all, we have spent years building our products, why should we limit ourselves to selling it in just one market! moreover, our travel fraternity is wise enough to know that DMCs handling multiple portfolios are not very reliable. It’s a simple case of jack of all trades, master of none. Today nobody is taking chances.”
Deepika Khanna, Founder, and CEO, Anchor Destinations, believes that the news of the resumption of scheduled international flights has created a positive and almost a thunderous response from travellers. There is a huge demand for short-haul destinations such as Thailand and Singapore and medium-haul destinations such as Mauritius for the upcoming season.
“The skies are open, and huge passenger traffic is expected now. Our focus will remain on our expertise of our DMC network and providing the best-on-ground solutions with added advantages of booking and paying locally. However, it is still important that for outbound travel, our partners and clients are aware of any travel guidelines and protocols to have a hassle-free holiday,” remarks Deepika.
Meanwhile, Anchor Destinations is promoting Maldives, Mauritius, Thailand, Dubai, Sri Lanka, and Bali, among other destinations. They are currently just using online and social media to reach out to their clients for promotional efforts. After the second quarter of the year, they will begin planning their physical campaigns.